Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced that mayors will lead local enforcement in a new national crackdown on organised crime groups running illegal waste sites across England.
The plan brings together government, police, the National Crime Agency, the Environment Agency and Mayors, with drones, more frontline officers and steeper fines – rising from £300 to £5,000 – used to deter illegal dumping.
Mayors will lead the crackdown at the local level, according to the Government, starting with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, under a new Waste Crime Crackdown Group chaired by Environment Secretary Angela Eagle.
Alongside enforcement, the government is funding clean-up of three more major illegal waste sites, in Kent, Surrey and West Yorkshire, together holding around 22,000 tonnes of dumped waste and affecting roughly 2,900 families.
Officials say the sites are often linked to serious organised crime, and new powers under the Crime and Policing Act 2026 will speed up asset seizures from offenders.
Comment
‘The days of making easy money out of waste are over. We’re giving authorities the powers to hunt down the people responsible. We will seize their assets and shut their operations down,’ the PM commented.
Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle added: ‘This isn’t just about people dumping rubbish. Large-scale waste sites are fuelled by serious, organised crime, and we need to use the full force of the law to tackle it and root it out at source.’
