Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Repeated offenders would have their driving licences revoked and could face prison time, under tougher new plans proposed by the Conservatives.
Anyone caught dumping illegally can already be handed a penalty notice of up to £1,000, with unlimited fines being handed out to the worst offenders.
But the Conservatives have promised to go further and make littering in the street or in the countryside a criminal offence that can result in points being deducted from your driving licence.
The most egregious offenders will have their licences stripped and sent to prison as part of the Conservative government’s zero tolerance policy on anti-social behaviour.
Announcing the new measures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “Everyone has the right to feel safe in the community they live in and to be proud of the place they call home.”
“We will take the bold action needed to crack down on illegal dumping, evict nuisance tenants and stop anti-social behaviour so we can build a safer future for everyone across the country.”
The Conservatives said the new measures would build on Mr Sunak’s plan to tackle anti-social behaviour, which also increased fines for illegal dumping to £1,000, banned nitrous oxide and required offenders to clean up graffiti themselves.
The plan introduced a so-called hotspots policing program targeting 10 areas with the highest rates of anti-social behaviour and petty crime. The Conservatives claimed that the initiative had led to around 800 arrests, around 2,000 stops and searches and 1,000 anti-social force actions.
But the threat of sending more people to prison for relatively minor crimes is likely to be unpopular in a criminal justice system that is currently stretched to its limits.
Police chiefs warned last week that the prison crisis hitting England and Wales was “unsustainable” as court backlogs mean cases are not being heard.
The Ministry of Justice has warned that it may have to release some inmates early for up to 70 days to ease pressure on prison capacity.
The Conservative plans were announced after Labour said it would “put police back on the streets” and accused the Conservatives of ignoring a “new wave of street crime”.
The shadow home secretary said on Thursday that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government would redeploy an extra 13,000 police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) to communities, saying the measures had been “fully funded and costed”.
She said the cost of up to £400 million would be paid for by cracking down on duplication and bureaucracy in the fragmented police procurement system across England and Wales’ 43 police stations.
“We’re seeing a new wave of street crime – not only has there been a huge increase in mobile phone theft but also a growing problem of anti-social behaviour,” she said.
“The Conservatives are ignoring this and cutting much-needed community policing.”