picture of a sofa in a London the result of fly tipping

Fly Tipping Analysis: London and England

3 June 2021

Fly tipping analysis for London and England in 2020

 

What is fly tipping?

Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste on land or in water, and it is a serious issue for our local areas and the environment. We used our back-end data to analyse the boroughs of London and other regions of England. Here are some interesting statistics about fly-tipping in England and London.

According to Defra, almost 1 million (976,000) fly-tipping incidents were reported by councils in England in 2020. A figure which btw excludes waste fly-tipped on private property because that falls outside the councils’ responsibility. So, whatever you read after this point, don’t forget that the problem is much worse!

Of those million or so fly-tips in England, about one third took place in London. This is equivalent to 1,000 occurring in London every day of the year.

This blog looks at whether this figure is worse or better than the rest of the country, how fly-tipping differs by borough, and whether the price a council charges its residents for bulky waste collection impacts behaviours.

 

Comparing analysis of apples with apples

Since fly-tipped waste is mainly comprised of stuff thrown out – like a sofa or mattress or items generated from improving the home, like some builders rubble or an old toilet, it seems sensible when comparing regional differences that we adjust the figures to reflect the number of underlying households.

So we took annual fly-tipping incidents by region and London borough and divided them by the latest ONS data for the number of households (which is a bit out of date but not by much) in that region. This analysis creates a ‘fly-tip per 100 homes’ rate – so we can start to compare apples with apples.

 

region fly tips households (000s) fly tips per 100 households
London  360,080  3,380 11
North East  60,531  1,169 5
Yorkshire  91,481  2,368 4
North West  115,192  3,116 4
East Midlands  75,081  2,009 4
West Midlands  70,830  2,421 3
South East  90,507  3,801 2
East  61,423  2,574 2
South West  50,506  2,438 2
__
England  975,631  23,274 4
England excl. London  615,551  19,894 3

 

1 fly tip per 10 London homes

London has an average statistic of 11 fly-tips annually per 100 homes, compared to a national average of 3. Therefore, the challenge in London is over 300% worse than in the rest of the country. 

Fun fact – since London has more than one fly-tipping incident per year for every 10 London homes and assuming you (dear reader) are not a fly-tipper, on average, one in nine of your neighbours is a fly-tipper! 

Map of rates in England by region in 2020

England flytipping by region with values map

 

London rates vary significantly borough by borough 

Digging into the analysis, Islington, Bromley, Barnet, Kingston and Bexley are the boroughs with the lowest fly-tipping rates per household. Conversely, Brent, Camden, Haringey, Hounslow and Redbridge are the London boroughs with the highest fly-tipping rates and between them accounted for more than a third of all fly-tipping in London in 2020.

Table of London fly tipping

Local authority fly tips households fly tips per 100 homes council bulky collection charge1
Brent  34,197  101,500 34 £35
Camden  34,465  111,400 31 £25
Haringey  22,972  107,700 21 £20
Hounslow  22,480  106,300 21 £40
Redbridge  19,897  105,000 19 Free
Hammersmith & Fulham  13,322  74,700 18 £27
Croydon  25,532  146,300 17 £31
Merton  13,047  81,500 16 £31
Southwark  17,872  128,600 14 £25
Westminster  15,283  117,100 13 £31
Harrow  11,151  85,600 13 £42
Hackney  12,190  103,400 12 £15
Ealing  13,115  124,100 11 £40
Greenwich  11,795  114,800 10 £11
Newham  11,145  117,300 10 £20
Hillingdon  10,434  112,400 9 £25
Waltham Forest  9,260  100,800 9 Free
Kensington & Chelsea  6,490  72,400 9 £33
Tower Hamlets  7,365  121,200 6 Free
Lambeth  6,638  122,100 5 £17
Barking & Dagenham  3,794  71,800 5 £10
Sutton  3,823  78,000 5 £31
Enfield  4,979  125,200 4 £40
Wandsworth  4,745  129,000 4 £20
Richmond upon Thames  2,887  78,500 4 £62
Havering  3,380  102,700 3 £43
Lewisham  3,842  119,800 3 £20
Bexley  2,552  101,600 3 £37
Kingston  1,619  65,900 2 £36
Barnet  3,420  144,900 2 £35
Bromley  2,821  136,900 2 £28
Islington  1,764  108,800 2 £30
average 11 £30

 

 

london flytipping per borough map

 

 

 

 

Council bulky waste collection charges do not seem to affect fly tipping

It’s often said that a very cheap or free bulky waste collection service from the council will reduce fly-tipping. However, when we compare rates per household with the amount each council charges householders for their bulky waste collection service – we found no statistically relevant correlation between the two.

Of the five councils with the worst levels of fly-tipping, 4 charged less than the London average of £30 for a collection. In fact, despite having one of the highest rates, Redbridge offers the service for free. Equally, 4 have a bulky waste collection charge higher than London’s average of the five councils with the lowest fly-tipping rates.

Table: By region relative to prosecution, skip prices & council bulky waste collection fees

region fly tips1 population fly tips per 1000 people fined2 council bulky collection charge3 skip hire price4
London  360,080  8,961,989 40 2.53% £27 £290
North East  60,531  2,669,941 23 0.39% £19 £280
Yorkshire  91,481  5,502,967 17 0.46% £27 £285
North West  115,192  7,341,196 16 0.49% £20 £275
East Midlands  75,081  4,835,928 15 0.63% £21 £280
West Midlands  70,830  5,934,037 12 0.35% £26 £270
South East  90,507  9,180,135 10 0.86% £35 £300
East  61,423  6,236,072 10 1.84% £33 £290
South West  50,506  5,624,696 9 0.88% £30 £350
___
England  975,631  56,286,961 17 1.0% £28 £290
England excl London  615,551  47,324,972 13 0.7% £28 £290
Notes
1 Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, Flytipping statistics for England 2019/20 (24 Feb 2021)
2 % of reported fly tipping incidents that resulted in a fine – source: Defra
3 average fee charged to householders by the council in this region to remove a sofa
4 average price including VAT to hire builders skip – source: LoveJunk research

 

 

Conclusion of our fly tipping analysis in England

Instead of encouraging councils to reduce bulky waste collection service fees, perhaps it would be better to concentrate on what boroughs like Islington, Bromley and Barnet are doing to achieve such low rates, then look to apply these lessons elsewhere in the country.

 

Other posts that might be of interest:

Interactive Map UK Fly tipping

source LoveJunk / Defra (2021)



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