Maximum fines for dropping rubbish are set to almost double – while car-driving litter louts will be forced to pay up even if their passenger is the culprit.
The current fine limit for littering is £80 but that will rise to £150 in April 2018, with motorists becoming a major target for councils.
Meanwhile, the minimum penalty will go up from £50 to £65 and the default fine will rise from £75 to £100.
Fines for littering are set to increase after a survey found 81 per cent of people were angered at litter levels
The changes come after a survey showed that 81 per cent of people were angered by the levels of litter on our streets and in the countryside. Cleaning it up costs taxpayers £800 million a year, according to Whitehall figures.
Many people who dump rubbish on roads get away with it because it is too hard to prove which person in the car was responsible.
But the measures mean vehicle owners will receive a fine if litter is thrown from their car, taking away the need for council officials to catch the culprit in the act.
The crackdown is hoped to tackle the coffee cups, fast food packaging, cigarette butts and nappies which litter major roads and motorways.
One in seven motorists has admitted to throwing rubbish out of their car, with 200,000 sacks of litter removed from England’s motorways and trunk roads every year.
Environment minister Therese Coffey said: ‘Littering blights our communities, spoils our countryside and taxpayers’ money is wasted cleaning it up. Throwing rubbish from a vehicle is just as unacceptable as dropping it in the street and we will tackle this anti-social behaviour by hitting litter louts in the pocket.’
On-the-spot fines for people littering from their cars were introduced in 1990 at a flat rate of £10, which has risen slowly over the decades.
A Highways England awareness campaign at Beaconsfield motorway services in Buckinghamshire recently found motorists most commonly dumped food packaging. Paper and tissues also made up almost a third of waste.
More than 300,000 haulage drivers are thought to litter lay-bys and roads every week, leaving behind bottles of urine, magazines, cans and tyres. The Daily Mail has highlighted the dangers to wildlife posed by plastic dumped in the environment.
Richard McIlwain, of Keep Britain Tidy, welcomed the measures but added: ‘Local authorities must be adequately resourced to make full use of the new powers for them to have maximum effect.’
A survey has found anger at the amount of litter being left in streets across the UK, where fines will increase
The Government’s litter strategy, released earlier this year, said: ‘When littering offences take place from a vehicle, councils say it is difficult to identify the offender with sufficient certainty to take enforcement action.’
Under the new rules, officials will need only to prove that litter was thrown from someone’s car to issue a fine.
AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: ‘You only have to go to a motorway or dual carriageway to see how much rubbish collects in the central reservation.’
He added: ‘When there are high winds, like last week, you end up with a blizzard of rubbish blowing across the road. It could force drivers to take evasive action, or a stray cigarette can set a grass verge on fire.’
Miss Coffey said: ‘These new fines will make sure the perpetrators, not the local community, bear the cost of keeping our streets and roads clean.’