There was an average of more than 1,000 fly-tips reported every week around the borough last year, according to official figures published today – at a time when the council had no enforcement staff
Croydon has the worst record in the country for fly-tipping. That’s official, from data published today by DEFRA, the environment department.
Rubbish contractors: lack of enforcement since 2023 and poor performance by contractors Veolia leave Croydon streets strewn with rubbish
The announcement is appalling timing for Croydon’s Conservative Mayor Jason Perry, the man that handed a £40million contract to rubbish contractors Veolia two years after sacking them for poor service.
According to DEFRA, on Perry’s watch, Croydon had 53,268 fly-tips in 2024-2025. That works out as more than 1,000 fly-tips every week reported around the borough.
The government figures relate to rubbish illegally dumped on public land.
Seven of the worst 10 fly-tip hotspots are London borough councils.
But Croydon’s fly-tipping tally dwarfs even the next worst-affected borough, Camden, where over the same period there were 36,216 cases.
Lewisham, nearby in south London, was rated third worst, with 33,471.
Councils in England recorded a 9% rise in fly-tipping incidents in 2024-2025 from the 1.15million they had to deal with in 2023/2024. The stats released today are the worst figures since new methods for recording cases were introduced in 2018.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister Mary Creagh said: “We are empowering local authorities to clamp down on waste cowboys and restore pride in our local areas.
“I share the public’s fury at seeing our streets, parks and fields used as dumping grounds.
“Fly-tippers should know – if you use your van to trash our countryside, don’t be surprised when it ends up on the scrapheap.”
Rubbish Mayor: Jason Perry has hiked Council Tax by 33%, and now charges £38 for replacement wheelie bins
As the figures were announced, DEFRA published new guidance to help councils seize and crush more vehicles used for fly-tipping, or repurpose them for clean-up operations, along with advice on how to take cases to court.
Councils are also being urged to name and shame fly-tippers on social media.
Creagh said: “This government is investing in cutting-edge technology and boosting Environment Agency funding to put more waste crime officers on the ground, while introducing tougher checks and penalties for those who break the law.”
Even the DEFRA data could be under-reporting the severity of the fly-tipping issue in Croydon, as their figures are significantly lower than the number of reports made via Croydon Council’s own app.
That suggests that the council is removing a large number of fly-tip reports from what it submitted for DEFRA’s report.
Mayor Perry has only recently reinstated the borough’s fly-tipping enforcement team, after a three-year hiatus.
Tony Hooker, from the volunteer organisation Litter Free Norbury, described the latest Croydon fly-tipping figures as “astonishing”.
Cause and effect: Litter Free Norbury’s Tony Hooker’s at-a-glance guide to the reasons behind Croydon’s fly-tipping crisis
Using publicly available figures and Freedom of Information responses, Hooker carefully analyses the performance of the council and Veolia over a range of street cleaning issues, from street bin provision to the number of missed collections in his local area.
Hooker told Inside Croydon: “Croydon topping the national fly-tipping table is not something residents will be at all proud of, but it is a testament to the efforts they have gone to report the scale of the problem.
“The increases are a predictable consequence of a series of policy decisions. Large Council Tax rises have been imposed, while previously free services such as bulky waste collections have been withdrawn.
“Residents face increasingly Draconian bin rules and, in many cases, cannot even obtain the containers they need. At the same time, removing the Public Safety Team stripped away the very team responsible for checking commercial waste contracts, managing the Time-Banded Waste Collection system and carrying out on-the-ground enforcement.
“The combined effect of weaker oversight, poor contract management and reduced enforcement has created an environment where non-compliance flourishes.
“These decisions have not merely coincided with rising fly-tipping — they have clearly helped drive it.”
Read more: Kafkaesque world of contractors clearing 98% of fly-tips
Read more: ‘London’s filthiest borough’ hands £40m rubbish deal to Veolia
Read more: Two-year search to replace Veolia hands £40m deal to… Veolia
Read more: BINMAGEDDON: Mayor’s secret plan to charge £5 per new bin
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