Manufacturers should contribute to the cost of cleaning up fly-tipped rubbish to help communities tackle the public health risk posed by the illegal practice, council leaders say.

The fly-tipping statistics for 2021/22 reveal that local authorities in England dealt with 1.09 million fly-tipping incidents. This marks a decrease of 4% from the 1.14 million reported in 2020/21.

The stats also show that local authorities carried out 507,000 enforcement actions in 2021/22, an increase of 52,000 actions (11%) from 455,000 in 2020/21.

The number of fixed penalty notices issued was 91,000 in 2021/22, an increase of 58% from 57,700 in 2020/21. This is the second most common action after investigations and accounted for 18% of all actions in 2021/22.

Despite the small decrease in fly-tipping incidents and the increase in enforcement actions, local authority leaders have still called for more to be done to crackdown on this practice, including tougher penalties and charging manufacturers.

Cllr David Renard, environment spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA), said: ‘Fly-tipping is inexcusable. It is not only an eyesore for residents, but a serious environmental and public health risk, creating pollution and attracting rats and other vermin. It also costs local taxpayers millions of pounds a year to clear up.

‘Councils are working tirelessly to counter the thousands of incidents every year and are determined to crack down on the problem so it is good to see that the number of enforcement actions has increased.

‘However, penalties handed down from prosecution fail to match the severity of the offence committed. We continue to urge the Government to review sentencing guidelines for fly-tipping so that offenders are given bigger fines for more serious offences to act as a deterrent.

‘Manufacturers should also contribute to the costs to councils of clear up, by providing more take-back services so people can hand in sofas, old furniture and mattresses when they buy new ones.’