Fly‑tipping law change to protect farmers blocked

Countryside campaigners have voiced anger after the government rejected Lords amendments that would have ended what rural groups describe as a “fundamental injustice” in the law on fly‑tipping.

During a Commons debate on 14 April, ministers voted down proposals to change the rules that currently make landowners legally responsible for clearing up waste illegally dumped on their land.

Farmers can be forced to pay thousands of pounds in clean‑up costs and even risk prosecution if waste is not removed.

See also: Fly-tippers to be forced to clean up mess under new rules

The amendments, agreed by peers in February, would have made convicted fly‑tippers automatically liable for clean‑up costs and placed a duty on local authorities to collect waste from both public and private land and recover costs from offenders.

The decision came amid widespread media coverage of what rural groups describe as a fly‑tipping “epidemic”.

During the debate, MPs from across the House raised concerns about the burden on farmers.

Andrew Snowden, Conservative MP for Fylde, said: “In rural areas, farmers are often blighted, and end up landed with the costs of significant, often industrial and criminal fly-tipping.

“That is deeply unfair.”

Defending the government’s position, policing and crime minister Sarah Jones MP pointed to the Waste Crime Action Plan, published on 20 March, which includes tougher penalties such as driving licence points for offenders.

However, she acknowledged the scale of the problem, telling MPs: “I think it is repulsive, and most of our communities are affected by it. We need to do more to tackle it.”

She added the government was “committed to forcing fly‑tippers to clean up their mess”, but said ministers did not agree with requiring councils to clear waste on private land because of the “very significant costs”.

Injustice remains

Campaigners say that leaves the injustice intact.

In response, Countryside Alliance spokesman Johnnie Furse said: “Everyone agrees that the current system is a ridiculous injustice – even the government has admitted that.

“And so it beggars belief that now, when the opportunity was presented to the government to fix the broken system, they refused to do so.”

The Countryside Alliance said it would continue campaigning alongside the NFU, CLA and other rural groups for reform, warning that without change, farmers will remain the victims paying for other people’s crimes.