Waste Crime: Knowsley

Matt Rodda Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Anneliese Midgley]

Absolutely. I pay tribute, once again, to my hon. Friend for the work that she has been doing with me on that specific site in her constituency. She is right. In a moment, I will move on to another site with major issues, but where the Environment Agency did move swiftly, which has made such a difference. I absolutely agree with her.

I do not want my constituents in Kirkby to face another summer with this stench and smell. Summer is something that we should look forward to, but they are going to be dreading it.

I will move on to the next waste dump, which I have briefly mentioned. Late last year, between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of waste was illegally dumped just off the M57 and East Lancs Road. That is enough to fill more than 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and it is one of the largest illegal waste sites in the country. If those roads had to close because there were any issues or problems from that waste dump, 800 businesses could be affected, with 20,000 employees struggling, or not able, to get into work.

These sites show that there has been a failure throughout the system. Taken together, they send a message that Knowsley is being treated as a dumping ground, and that is impossible for me and my constituents to ignore. We can see what is happening across the country. The Government have rightly stepped in to support the clean-up of illegal waste sites, first in Oxford, and now announced for Wigan, Lancashire and Sheffield. That is great, but what about the dumps affecting Knowsley? I am sure that the Minister will understand why my constituents and I see that as unfair. It is not right for my constituents and struggling local authority to have to pick up the tab for outright criminal behaviour.

[Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech and I wholeheartedly support her campaign for her constituents, given the appalling situation they find themselves in. Does she agree that issues are often also at street level where, sadly, a tiny minority of residents drop off mattresses, old furniture and bags of rubbish, leaving them at the end of the street, causing a local stink and an eyesore? In my area, that is being tackled by the local authority, but we would like more resources. It is important that the Minister is present, and I look forward to her addressing the issue later.

[Anneliese Midgley]

I absolutely agree: this matter affects us across all our constituencies. In the action plan, I have read about some good measures, but they need to be put into action. I am sure that the Minister will go into that in more detail.

I finish with four questions for the Minister. First of all, will she look at whether Knowsley could receive the same level of support as other areas that have been cleaned up following Government intervention? Secondly, will the Government ensure that struggling local authorities are not left to pick up the bill for large-scale organised waste crime? Thirdly, what will actually change to ensure earlier intervention, so that no community has to endure what a number of my constituents are living with now? Finally, what will the consequences be for the criminals, so that this is just not worth it for them?

My constituents deserve better. They should not have to live like that. They should not be breathing this in, cleaning it off their homes, missing out on education or reorganising their lives around it, and they should not feel like they are being overlooked or left behind—but right now, that is exactly how it feels to us. That is not acceptable.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh)]

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I have slightly more time than normal, so I hope that we can have a bit of discussion because I am absolutely passionate about tackling waste crime. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Knowsley (Anneliese Midgley) for securing this debate and to all hon. colleagues who made such valuable points.

I say first that we have a programme called Pride in Place. Everyone’s environment starts at their front door, and if their front door has dog mess or fly-tipping on it, or if, as we have heard today, their car is covered in dust from an illegal waste site—or from a permitted waste site in breach of its permits, as the lawyer on my shoulder would say—then people do not feel at ease where they live. Those waste criminals and permit breachers violate our spaces.

Organised criminals, as we heard, are exploiting the waste sector for profit. They have moved in on a large scale over the past 15 years, on the Conservatives’ watch. They damage our environment, threaten public safety and undercut decent businesses doing the right thing, and they are making a lot of money out of it. That happened under the previous Government and was allowed to continue, so that it became a consequence-free crime.

The Environmental Services Association estimates that 20% of all waste in England is illegally managed. That costs our economy more than £1 billion. In the 2024 financial year, criminals evaded at least £150 million in landfill tax. They do not pay it, so we all pay it. Waste crime is organised crime. Waste crime is serious crime, and this Government will treat it as such. We are calling time on waste crime.

What have we done? We have put boots on the ground and we are putting drones in the air. Since coming into office, we have boosted the Environment Agency’s enforcement budget by 50%: it has gone up from £10 million to more than £15 million. When I was Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee in a previous Parliament, before my enforced gap years, I remember sitting and watching pollution happening in our country. I was really frustrated, and I understood the Environment Agency’s frustration that it was not equipped and funded to do its job. We have pursued major regulatory reforms, and we have boosted the joint unit for waste crime.

In the first 18 months of this Labour Government, the Environment Agency has stopped illegal waste activity at more than 1,200 sites. It has achieved 122 prosecutions and 10 people have gone to prison. The action plan that we announced last Friday is the next step up, and it is a scale up. We are calling zero tolerance on this crime in three different areas. First, we are preventing illegal activity before it starts, by getting better at working out how criminals act. Secondly, we will strengthen enforcement so that offenders are caught and punished. Thirdly, we are cleaning up the most harmful sites. I will come on to the site mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Knowsley shortly, but let me first take each of those areas in turn.

First, on prevention, we are tightening the rules and closing the gaps that criminals exploit. How? We are overhauling the regulation of the waste carriers, brokers and dealers regime, moving from a light-touch, paper-based regime—where campaigners registered Oscar the dog for a licence—into a full, environmental-permitted scheme. Those paper systems are going. We are going to have mandatory digital waste tracking. There will be a single UK-wide platform to monitor those waste movements—as it goes from the transfer statement on to someone else and on to someone else, as that is where it gets lost and it goes out into the environment—so that we can spot diversion and fraud earlier, further up the chain before it turns up on a motorway.

We are also removing widely-abused waste permit exemptions on three things. The first is waste tyres; we have all seen the mountains that somehow catch fire. The second is end-of-life vehicles, and the third is scrap metals, where we know there is a criminal industry with cable theft and so on. There was a similar site in Wakefield that eventually went bust, owing the taxpayer £60 million.

[Matt Rodda]

The Minister is making an excellent speech. I am really pleased to hear about the new strategy and determination from the current Government, in contrast with their predecessors. Would she able to address—this is a niche matter, but it is really important in some areas—the issue of abandoned boats? We have a serious problem in our section of the River Thames with sunken boats. When I walk along the river, I can often spot three or four of them. They are an environmental hazard. Fuel oil could get out of these boats—

[Clive Efford (in the Chair)]

Order. We are talking about Knowsley here.