Councils have dealt with nearly 10% more fly-tipping cases under Labour, official figures showed.

The number of fly-tipping cases local authorities nationally had to deal with last year jumped nearly 10% on the previous year to 1.26 million.

Sir James Cleverly MP, Shadow Housing Secretary, said: "Under Labour, hard-working taxpayers are paying more whilst receiving less.

"What's worse, having scrapped jury trials and released hardened criminals from prison, the Government has destroyed any deterrent for wrongdoing. And when the Conservatives attempted to give fly-tippers points on their license, Labour voted against it."

Keir Starmer's local Labour-run council has the second most fly-tipping incidents int the country, for a second year in a row. Camden had a 4.1 per cent increase in fly-tipping from 2023/24 to 2024/25.

Dr Anna Scott, director of services at environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, slammed the figures as "shocking and of grave concern" to communities cleared up instead of "carpeted with criminal waste".

She added: "A 9% increase to more than 1.25 million incidents and a fall in prosecutions is a disaster for the environment and our communities blighted by fly-tipping.

"To see incidents of illegal fly-tipping rise by 9% and the number of fines issued by the courts fall by 9% to just 1,250 with the value of those fines being just £673,000 is concerning.

"It is time for us, as a country, to throw the full force of the law at those who mindlessly and selfishly pollute our country for profit."

Local authorities in England recorded a 9% rise in fly-tipping incidents in 2024/2025 from the 1.15 million they had to deal with in 2023/2024, and the highest figures since new methods for recording cases were introduced in 2018/2019.

The figures from the Environment Department (Defra) relate to rubbish illegally dumped on public land, with private landowners across the country facing clear-up costs from the scourge of having waste fly-tipped on their property.

Countryside groups warned that farmland is being targeted by organised crime gangs dumping waste that blights the landscape and endangers wildlife, livestock, crops and the environment, leaving farmers with the clean-up bill despite being victims of illegal activity.

The data from councils reveal that nearly two thirds of cases (62%) involved household waste, with 777,000 incidents in 2024/2025, up on the 688,000 that had to be cleared up the previous year.

Household waste ranges from black bags of day-to-day rubbish to old furniture, carpets and bric-a-brac from loft and shed clearances.

A shocking 52,000 cases involved an amount of rubbish that was equivalent to a tipper lorry load or more, an 11% increase on the previous year, with these larger cases costing English councils £19.3 million to clear up last year.

The number of enforcement actions by councils was up 8% in 2024/2025 to 572,000 while the number of fixed penalty notices issued was also up 9% to 69,000.

But the total number of court fines was down 9% to 1,250 and the combined value of the fines also decreased from £730,000 the previous year to £673,000 in 2024/2025, the figures show, although average fines increased slightly.

Gavin Lane, president of the Country Land and Business Association, said: "Farmers and land managers have had enough. The countryside is increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs - often violent - who know that rural areas are under-policed and resourced.

"It's not just litter blotting the landscape, but tonnes of household and commercial waste which can often be hazardous - even including asbestos and chemicals - endangering

wildlife, livestock, crops and the environment. Farmers are victims yet have to pay clean up costs themselves.

"We need to see penalties being enforced that better reflect the severity of the crime, and the seizure of vehicles must be the default penalty to send a clear signal that criminals will face real consequences if they are caught fly-tipping."

A Labour spokesman said: "The Tories are being as disingenuous as ever. These figures include councils which they run. But it's not the first time Labour has had to clean up the Tories' mess - no wonder voters binned them.

"With Labour, more of these selfish polluters are being punished, and we're giving councils and waste watchdogs more cash to crackdown on these criminals."