The Government will abolish fees charged by some local authorities to make it cheaper for households to dispose of their rubbish and encourage recycling.

Some local authorities charge up to £10 for an individual item and £50 for a car load of DIY waste.

The decision means that DIY waste will now be treated in the same way as household rubbish which is free to dispose of at household waste recycling centres.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for people to dispose of their waste properly and that’s why we are removing the financial burden on doing the right thing with DIY trash.

“This not only supports our wider work to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime but we are helping home improvers across the nation make their dream projects a reality.”

Saving money and combatting fly-tipping

Pow said scrapping the charges complements wider action taken to tackle fly-tipping and waste crime estimated to cost the economy £924m per year in England.

Grants totalling £775,000 were announced earlier this year to help councils roll out a range of projects to crack down on fly-tipping.

The Government clarified the law in 2015 that local taxpayers should not be charged for disposing of household waste at civic amenity sites, scrapping backdoor “tip taxes”.

It has also repeatedly stated that councils should not be charging for DIY household waste disposal either, however, some local authorities have kept charges in place.

Households who live in a local authority that has kept DIY waste charges in place should check first that charges have been scrapped before visiting their recycle centre.