Clean-up of illegal waste supersite costs taxpayers £6m

The clear-up of one of England's largest illegal waste tips has been completed - landing taxpayers with a £6m bill.

The government has vowed to recoup the clearance costs for the Kidlington dump in Oxfordshire - and seven other sites - from the criminals responsible.

In 2025, around 22,000 tonnes of domestic and commercial rubbish was dumped at the spot, between the River Cherwell and the A34. It is one of nearly 30 so-called "supersites" first uncovered by a BBC investigation.

The government, which launched a crackdown on waste crime last week, said it would do more to force criminals to pay for clean-up operations by confiscating their money and assets.

But figures obtained by the BBC show that, in the past five years, the Environment Agency has so far managed to claw back just over £7m from waste criminals using Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) confiscation orders.

At the same time, the agency says waste crime costs the economy £1bn a year.

Campaigners have labelled the amount taken from convicted criminals as "derisory" while the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents rural landowners, asked: "Where is the deterrent?"

The amount paid by criminals so far was revealed by an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) request to the Environment Agency by the BBC.

It shows there have been 66 confiscation orders between January 2021 and March 2026, totalling £7.3m.

Fourteen orders have yet to be fully paid, leaving around £1.4m still to be recovered.

The figures cover those larger illegal sites for which the Environment Agency is responsible, and do not include confiscation orders for smaller fly-tipping offences, which fall under the remit of local authorities.

Baroness Sheehan, who chairs the House of Lords environment and climate change committee, said the figures obtained by the BBC showed "consistent, decisive enforcement" was lacking.

"With clean-up costs at sites such as Kidlington far exceeding these sums, and enforcement still lagging, the taxpayer continues to foot the bill," the Liberal Dem peer said.

"The Environment Agency must do more to secure and enforce confiscation orders against those responsible, so criminals pay - not communities."

As well as the work at the Kidlington site, the Environment Agency has also stepped in to clear a supersite at Hoads Wood, near Ashford in Kent.

The cost of these two clearances alone has been budgeted at £20m by the Environment Agency - although the Kidlington project has come in under the original £7.3m contract.

The government estimates that 20% of waste in England is illegally managed.

In the Waste Crime Action Plan, launched under Keir Starmer's administration, the government said the Environment Agency would step in "on an exceptional basis to clear sites where that waste presents an untenable risk to the public and the environment".

Private landowners whose land is used for illegal waste dumping are normally expected to pay for the clear-up.

Last week, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a nationwide crackdown on waste crime and plans to clean up three more of the largest illegal tips in England.

In total, six supersites have been earmarked to be cleared using public money, but they will be assessed first. They are:

• Power Station Road - Isle of Sheppey, Kent
• Aymer Close - Runnymede, Surrey
• Midland Road - Bradford, West Yorkshire
• Alan Ramsbottom Way - Hyndburn, Lancashire
• Worthing Road - Sheffield, South Yorkshire
• Bolton House Road - Bickershaw, Greater Manchester

Environment secretary Dame Angela Eagle said: "After years of waste crime being allowed to fester, we are taking decisive action.

"By putting more officers on the frontline and using drones to catch offenders in the act, we're putting the criminal gangs on notice that there is nowhere left to hide."

But many more illegal supersites remain - and it is not known if or when they will be cleared up, and who will be made to pay.

This includes one supersite in the countryside of Over, Gloucestershire, which Charlie Coats, chairman of Highnam Parish Council, is calling for the Environment Agency to also deal with.

He told the BBC that the amount of money taken from waste criminals was "derisory" and added: "It acts as absolutely no deterrent whatsoever because the income that they can derive from this dwarfs anything by way of any fine."

Gavin Lane, president of the CLA, which represents around 28,000 landowners, farmers and rural businesses across England and Wales - who are often left paying the cost of clean-up - also called for more to be done to make the criminals foot the bill.

"The punishment has to be real: seize their vehicles, recover the money they owe and make waste crime a losing business," he said.

The Environment Agency told the BBC that some of the unpaid confiscation orders were outstanding "because they are still within the six-month payment period allowed for settlement" and the failure to pay was a matter for the courts.

It added that more money could still be seized if further information is uncovered about the offenders' assets.

Four men have so far been arrested in connection with the illegal waste tip at Kidlington. All have since been released while the investigation continues.