Jim Shannon

I thank the hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt) for setting the scene. The hon. Lady has done the House a favour in highlighting an issue that maybe not many of us were totally aware of—I know that I was not, until I did some research in Northern Ireland. I will have a specific request for the Minister, as I always do. The hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills spoke directly about our environmental responsibilities, our industrial potential and the unique challenges faced by local authorities, and I wish to speak about the situation in Northern Ireland. I thank the hon. Lady for securing this debate, because when we talk about a circular economy, as she did, we must ensure that no part of this United Kingdom is left spinning its wheels in isolation. I must remind the House of a fundamental structural difference. The 11 councils in Northern Ireland, including my own superb Ards and North Down council, are different animals compared with local authorities across Great Britain. They do not control schools or roads; their responsibilities are different. Instead, waste management and environmental health sits at the absolute pinnacle of their frontline responsibilities. It is one of the largest items on their balance sheets. When waste policy fluctuates, our local councils feel the shockwaves immediately. Our councils have worked hard. According to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, our municipal recycling rates sit proudly at some 50%, but they are hitting a brick wall—a wall that is built out of unique geographical and market restrictions that I want to ask the Minister about. The Minister is always helpful in answering my questions. I appreciate that very much, and I know that she will come back to me with some indication of a way forward. Unlike a council in the English midlands, which can simply chuck its baled aluminium on to a lorry and drive it down a motorway to a domestic smelting plant, a council in Northern Ireland faces severe market isolation. We have a smaller domestic market, fewer local reprocessors and a distinct lack of heavy infrastructure for secondary metal refining. The hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills referred to Novelis, and the indication was that it would be able to recycle all aluminium here in the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland needs a methodology for getting into that process. We do not have that at the moment. To get our high-value aluminium to the main UK or European markets, our authorities must contend with the tyranny—I use this word on purpose—of distance and the shipping costs. Every single tonne of recycled metal must cross the Irish sea. That means that our local authorities are at the mercy of volatile sea freight charges, supply chain disruptions and—let us not mince words—the lingering regulatory frictions of the Windsor framework. If a local council faces bloated logistical costs just to export its aluminium scrap to a mainland smelter, the economic incentive to invest in advanced sorting facilities begins to collapse. For us in Northern Ireland, this is chaos. It just does not work at all. I thank the hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills again for highlighting this issue. We cannot expect Northern Ireland’s ratepayers to foot the bill for structural market disadvantages. Respectfully, I say to the Minister that if the Government are serious about a UK-wide green transition, there also has to be targeted support. We need the Government to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to invest in local reprocessing infrastructure. It is time to focus on this issue. Let us be clear: the people of my constituency of Strangford and across Northern Ireland want to do their bit for the planet, and our local government stands ready to deliver, but they cannot do it if they are economically stranded by a lack of market access. Let us give Northern Ireland’s councils the tools, freight backing and infrastructure support to ensure that a can thrown into a recycling bin in Newtownards in my constituency has the exact same value and future as a can thrown away in London, the midlands or across this great United Kingdom.