Yesterday (14 April), during the Commons debate on Lords amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, the government rejected amendments made in the House of Lords which would have finally addressed the fundamental injustice of the current law where the landowner is responsible for the cost of clearing up waste fly-tipped on their land. It is hard to think of another crime where the victim is made to pay.

The debate came against a background of widespread media coverage of the rural fly-tipping epidemic. Tim Bonner, Chief Executive at the Countryside Alliance, spoke to BBC News about the issue earlier today (15 April 2026).

The Minister for Policing and Crime, Sarah Jones MP, relied on the government’s Waste Crime Action Plan published on 20 March to defend the government’s position. While there is much in the plan that is welcome it remains the case that unless the fly-tipper is caught and the clear up costs recoverable on conviction, landowners continue to face bills that can run into many thousands of pounds.

The Minister in the Lords, Lord Hanson of Flint, said when these amendments were debated: “I recognise the financial burden that clearing fly-tipped waste places on landowners…” and that “I fully understand and share the sentiment behind the amendment… It is legitimate to ask why a farmer, landowner or occupier of any land should be liable for clean-up costs”. Yet, once again the government has chosen to do nothing.

The Shadow Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, Matt Vickers MP, pressed the Minister on fly-tipping and Mr Andrew Snowden MP(Conservative)  noted that “in rural areas, farmers are often blighted, and end up landed with the costs of significant, often industrial and criminal fly-tipping” and “that is deeply unfair, and that the Government should accept the amendments, which would help take the burden away from the victims of these crimes?". The chair of the all-party parliamentary group for rural business and the rural powerhouse, John Milne MP (LibDem), said he heard constantly about rural crime, including theft, livestock worrying and machinery break-ins, but that “one topic keeps coming up, and that is fly-tipping”. He noted that: “the National Farmers’ Union, the Countryside Alliance, the Environmental Services Association and Suez Recycling and Recovery all say the same thing: waste crime is spiralling”.

The Minister accepted the strength of feeling on fly-tipping across the House stating: “I think it is repulsive, and most of our communities are affected by it. Whether it is the large fly-tipping in our rural communities that is driven by serious organised crime or the everyday fly-tipping that we see in our cities, we need to do more to tackle it”.  She said the government is “committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up their mess” and that “under this Bill, people who use their vehicle to fly-tip will potentially get nine points on their licence”. However, the government “did not agree with the Lords amendment that proposed that local authorities should have to clear all sites, including private sites, because of the very significant costs…”. The result is that the government recognises the injustice of the current situation but refused to take this opportunity to address it.

The Alliance briefed MPs and co-ordinated a joint letter to Ministers, signed by representatives of the Country Land and Business Association, the National Farmers’ Union, the National Rural Crime Network and Clean Up Britain, ahead of the debate and will continue to campaign to address the scourge of fly-tipping and the unfair anomaly that landowners as victims must pay for other people’s crime.