The Government asked councils a month ago to volunteer for pilot bin tax schemes, offering around £1million to town halls willing to get involved. But yesterday Ms Ruddock was forced to  admit that none had come forward. Despite the complete lack of interest, however, she made it clear that Labour will press ahead.

In an article in Materials Recycling Week magazine, published today, she argues that there is little evidence that incentive schemes rewarding households for recycling actually work.

Instead, she insists it is better to charge households according to the amount they throw away.

“Householders who throw away more could pay more, depending on how the scheme is structured,” she says. “There is a large volume of evidence from systems operating overseas where people pay more if they throw away more.” Her threats provoked an angry backlash last night. Critics claim the move would hit families struggling with the soaring cost of living.

Doretta Cocks, of the Campaign For Weekly Waste Collection, said: “This claim that charging for rubbish collection will encourage people to recycle more is simply not true. Common sense suggests people are going to look for ways of avoiding the charges.

“It will mean more rubbish burning, fly tipping and people dumping waste in other people’s bins.”

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “If people recycle then councils save money by cutting landfill – that money should be given back to people as an incentive.” Downing Street aides signalled earlier this year that the bin tax idea had been dropped, even though more than £7.5million of taxpayers’ money had been spent setting up the experiment.

The hint came ahead of last May’s council elections, when Labour faced a drubbing from voters and bin taxes were a key issue in many areas.

Mr Brown has been made acutely aware that charging for household waste collection – until now free by law – is deeply unpopular. But the Climate Change Bill, currently going through Parliament, will change the law and allow town halls to impose charges.