Edmonton incinerator cost cap rises to £1.25bn as completion pushed back to December 2029

The maximum cost of the new Edmonton incinerator has gone up from £885 million to £1.25 billion. The finish date has also been renegotiated to December 2029, two years later than originally planned.

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is run by the Green Party. Its 14 members approved the new terms with contractor Acciona at their quarterly meeting this week. The NLWA handles waste disposal for about two million residents across seven boroughs: Enfield, Haringey, Barnet, Camden, Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest.

Where the project stands

The energy recovery facility at Edmonton Eco Park was approved in 2017, and building work started in 2022. About £700 million has been spent on it so far.

Environmental campaigners and councillors have questioned the project throughout. Groups such as Stop the Edmonton Incinerator Now (StEIN) are worried that it will push up demand for waste and could give off harmful particles into the air.

NLWA chair Councillor Jacob Cable said: "At this late stage in construction and taking all the facts into consideration, we have come to the decision that it is in the public interest for the facility to be finished."

Cllr Cable said cancelling the project now would cost the boroughs much more. He added that the agreement holds the contractor firmly to account.

The case for finishing

The authority says work on site has picked up. More than 400 skilled workers are there each day, up from 200 at the start of 2026.

Once the facility is running, the NLWA says it will cost about £1.50 per resident a week. That covers rubbish collection, recycling and eight recycling centres across north London.

The authority estimates that cancelling would add about £100 million a year to costs by 2030/31. It says the boroughs would then have to rely on private waste operators, adding around 30,000 lorry journeys a year.

Cllr Cable said the NLWA would also push for "significant systemic change to ensure that unsustainable waste and rubbish are reduced". He called on the government to ban more plastics that are unnecessary or hard to recycle.