Andy Burnham is poised to put the National Crime Agency (NCA) at the heart of a new plans to hunt down organised crime gangs behind Britain’s illegal waste dumps.
The NCA, often dubbed the “British FBI” because of its focus on disrupting serious organised crime, will be tasked with a new crackdown on gangs profitting from large-scale fly-tipping.
The i Paper understands that the proposed model would bring together national and regional agencies, and councils and environmental authorities to share intelligence, identify links between illegal waste sites, and target the criminal networks behind them.
It would mark a significant escalation in the Government’s response to large-scale fly-tipping, shifting the emphasis from clearing waste after it has been dumped to identifying and dismantling the criminal networks making money from it.
Gangs can often pose as legitimate waste disposal businesses, advertising their services on the internet for a cost before ditching the rubbish at illegal sites.
The announcement is expected to form part of the new Prime Minister’s summer tour of Britain, focused on solving the difficult problems he argues have been ignored for too long.
The wider programme includes action on rough sleeping, free bus travel for the disabled and regional public transport and connectivity.
The waste plans draw on Burnham’s experience as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, where he repeatedly argued that large-scale illegal dumping should be treated as a serious organised crime issue rather than simply an environmental nuisance.
That experience includes the sprawling Bickershaw waste site in Wigan, where around 25,000 tonnes of waste accumulated next to homes and a primary school. A major fire at the site last summer burned for days and forced nearby schools to close.
On August 4, the agency announced the arrest of four men over the Bickershaw operation: two from Wigan, aged 35 and 41, a 24-year-old from Leeds and a 59-year-old from Liverpool. They were arrested on suspicion of environmental offences, fraud and money laundering.
The 24-year-old Leeds man was also arrested in connection with illegal waste dumping at Cave’s Inn Pits, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Shawell in Leicestershire.
That site is the subject of a separate major investigation after around 30,000 tonnes of shredded waste was discovered there.
The connection does not prove that the two sites were operated by the same criminal organisation, but it demonstrates why investigators are increasingly looking across geographical boundaries rather than treating major illegal dumps as isolated local incidents.
Burnham said the arrests would mark the beginning of tougher action against gangs suspected of making huge sums by illegally disposing of waste. “I have stood on Bolton House Road and seen what local people have had to live with’” he said.
“It is shocking – an ocean of rubbish piled up next to a primary school, and families unable to escape the smell in their own homes.
“This is not fly-tipping – this is organised crime, and it is local communities that are paying the price.
“For too long, this issue has been ignored, but not on my watch.”
A significant portion of the Wigan dump sits on land owned by the King through his Duchy of Lancaster estate. However, Bickershaw is far from an isolated case.
A recent Environment Agency (EA) survey found that respondents believed organised crime groups were responsible for 35 per cent of waste crime, up from 31 per cent in 2023, while an estimated 20 per cent of waste was being managed illegally.
While the figures are based on perceptions from 764 industry stakeholders, including landowners and farmers, rather than recorded offences, they offer one of the clearest indications of the scale of the problem.
In July, the regulator, which currently takes the lead on large-scale illegal dumping, inspected 42 waste sites suspected of criminal activity, leading to 17 permits being suspended or revoked and more than 30 criminal investigations.
The agency is also pursuing major cases in areas including Lancashire, Oxfordshire, Kent and Leicestershire.
Earlier this year, four men were jailed after an EA investigation into a sophisticated operation that illegally dumped controlled waste at six sites across London. One landowner was left facing a £300,000 clean-up bill.
And in Oxfordshire, a huge illegal dump near Kidlington became a national symbol of the problem, with thousands of tonnes of waste accumulating on private land.
The Government estimates waste crime costs the economy around £1bn a year.
The proposed role for the NCA is not without precedent.
The Joint Unit for Waste Crime, hosted by the EA, already brings together national and regional enforcement agencies to target serious and organised illegal dumping – but it is hoped that the involvement of the NCA will allow the Government to go further to crack down on it.
Different organisations in Greater Manchester have also worked together to tackle the problem.
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