Quick summary: A new study based on community data reveals that Birmingham City Council has logged 31,106 fly-tipping reports, a total that more than doubles any other local authority in the UK and constitutes over 33% of the city’s overall municipal complaints. While large cities like Sheffield and Manchester also handle high volumes of illegally dumped waste, smaller areas such as Stevenage experience the highest concentration of the problem with dumping accounts making up more than 41% of their total local issues. For public policy and community well-being, this severe imbalance highlights the urgent need for targeted government infrastructure funding and reliable waste management systems to prevent neighborhood decline and safeguard the mental and physical health of residents.
Birmingham City Council has logged more fly-tipping reports than any other authority in the UK, according to a new study by eco-friendly rubbish removal company HIPPO. Analysts examined FixMyStreet data from 270 councils, ranking each by total fly-tipping complaints and by what share of all reports on the platform were dumping related.
Birmingham’s total of 31,106 fly-tipping reports is more than double the next highest council and exceeds the combined figures of the second and third place authorities. Those reports make up 33.2% of all complaints the city has logged on FixMyStreet.
Sheffield and Manchester round out the top three, though the two cities differ notably in proportion: fly-tipping accounts for a larger share of Manchester’s overall complaints than it does of Birmingham’s or Sheffield’s, despite Manchester’s lower raw total.
London boroughs feature heavily further down the top 10, with four entries in total. Westminster leads that group, which HIPPO attributes partly to the volume of commercial waste generated in the borough. Barnet, Lambeth, and Croydon also appear, with Barnet notable for having the lowest fly-tipping share of any council in the top 10 despite ranking fifth overall.
Buckinghamshire is the only shire county to make the list, while Stevenage records the highest proportion of fly-tipping complaints of any top 10 council, the sole entry above 35%.
| Rank | Council | Fly-tipping Reports | Total Reports | Percentage of fly-tipping reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham City Council | 31,106 | 93,723 | 33.2% |
| 2 | Sheffield City Council | 15,575 | 56,332 | 27.6% |
| 3 | Manchester City Council | 9,680 | 27,922 | 34.7% |
| 4 | Westminster City Council | 8,219 | 32,743 | 25.1% |
| 5 | Barnet Borough Council | 6,218 | 42,065 | 14.8% |
| 6 | Lambeth Borough Council | 5,696 | 19,626 | 29.0% |
| 7 | Croydon Borough Council | 4,078 | 13,908 | 29.3% |
| 8 | Buckinghamshire Council | 3,749 | 23,061 | 16.3% |
| 9 | Stevenage Borough Council | 3,421 | 8,332 | 41.1% |
| 10 | Luton Borough Council | 3,138 | 12,268 | 25.6% |
Which councils report the least
At the opposite end of the table, Falkirk Council in central Scotland recorded the fewest fly-tipping reports of any authority studied, with just 100 logged out of 3,896 total complaints. South Ribble in Lancashire follows in second place.
Several councils tied for third and fourth place despite recording different proportions of fly-tipping among their overall complaints. Cannock Chase and Belfast both logged 103 reports, though Cannock Chase’s figure represents a notably higher share of its total complaints than Belfast’s does. Horsham and East Riding of Yorkshire tied on 104 reports apiece, with an even wider gap in proportion between the two. Teignbridge and East Devon closed out the bottom group, both recording 106 reports.
| Rank | Council | Fly-tipping Reports | Total Reports | Percentage of fly-tipping reports |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Falkirk Council | 100 | 3,896 | 2.6% |
| 2 | South Ribble Borough Council | 101 | 957 | 10.6% |
| =3 | Cannock Chase District Council | 103 | 511 | 20.2% |
| =3 | Belfast City Council | 103 | 622 | 16.6% |
| =4 | Horsham District Council | 104 | 818 | 12.7% |
| =4 | East Riding of Yorkshire Council | 104 | 2,456 | 4.2% |
| =5 | Teignbridge District Council | 106 | 866 | 12.2% |
| =5 | East Devon District Council | 106 | 906 | 11.7% |
Volume versus concentration
Gareth Lloyd Jones, Managing Director at HIPPO, said the findings highlight two different ways of measuring the same problem. “What really stands out is the difference between volume and concentration. Birmingham has by far the highest number of fly-tipping reports, which points to the scale of the problem in a large city. But places like Stevenage show a higher proportion, simply because there are fewer total reports overall. It is two very different ways of looking at the same issue.”
Jones also linked the figures to the rollout of weekly food waste collections, which were intended to give residents another legitimate route for disposing of waste. “Weekly food waste collections ought to help, because they give people one more legitimate way to get rid of waste. But a quarter of councils were apparently not ready to start the new food waste collections on time. If the collections are unreliable, more rubbish will end up dumped in lay-bys and alleyways. The funding and the vehicles have to come first.”