Labour will force fly-tippers to work in “clean-up squads” if it wins power at the next election.

The party made the pledge as it highlighted figures showing cases of rubbish dumping in England have risen to nearly 3,000 per day.

As both main parties ramp up commitments on law and order ahead of May’s local elections, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said the Conservatives “have let neighbourhoods be buried under an avalanche of litter”.

The opposition pointed to government data on fly-tipping showing cases in England increased by a third over the last 13 years under the Tories.

The number of incidents of rubbish blighting highways and footpaths rose from 819,571 in 2010 to 1.09 million in 2022, according to the figures.

That amounted to an average of 125 incidents an hour, or 2,989 a day, Labour said.

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Local authorities in England and Wales would be able to make offenders clear up waste they had dumped through Fixed Penalty Cleaning Notices under Labour’s plans.

Mr Reed said: “The Conservatives have let neighbourhoods be buried under an avalanche of litter and dumped rubbish – leaving communities feeling broken and powerless down a spiral of decline.

“A Labour government will clean up Britain. We will introduce clean-up squads to ensure those who make the mess, clean up the mess.”

It comes amid competing efforts by Labour and the Conservatives to sell themselves as the tough-on-crime party by putting crackdown plans at the heart of their campaigns in the run-up to England’s local elections.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week announced a set of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, including a laughing gas ban, trials of swifter justice measures and increased policing in areas of England and Wales deemed to have high amounts of low-level crime.

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had not gone far enough.

“Talk to people anywhere, Burnley or anywhere across the country, and they would say after 13 years we’re in a position where anti-social behaviour still hasn’t been dealt with,” he said during a visit to east Lancashire earlier on Tuesday.

“They’re pretty fed up with the government and they don’t think that the measures the government’s put in place are making any difference.”

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