Cleaning up illegal dumps costs millions in landfill tax

Millions of pounds in unpaid landfill tax to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.

- Sandra Laville Helena Horton

At the only site the agency has committed to clearing - a vast illegal dump at Hoad's Wood in Kent - £4m of the £15m taxpayers are paying is landfill tax to the government.

John Russell, the Liberal Democrat peer who helped push the agency to clean up Hoad's Wood, described the situation as ludicrous.

"It is extremely unhelpful ... to make the EA pay landfill tax on the illegal waste sites they are trying to clear up," said Russell. "I strongly encourage the Treasury to take an urgent fresh cold hard look at these regulations."

In Wigan the local MP Josh Simons has been calling for months for the EA to clear 25,000 tonnes of rubbish dumped alongside a primary school.