Government set to double fines for littering to £150

The Government is expected to publish a new strategy on litter in the next few months

Currently fines vary from place to place, but tend to be between £50 and £80 (Getty)

Fines for dropping litter are set to roughly double to £150 as part of a new crackdown by the Government, according to a report.

Marcus Jones, the Communities Minister, told The Daily Telegraph that if people would not use bins then the Government should “hit them in the pocket”.

Currently fines vary from place to place, but tend to be between £50 and £80. A forthcoming consultation document from the Department for Communities and Local Government is expected to suggest a top fine of up to £150 with a minimum of £100.

Mr Jones said: “Dropping litter is the kind of antisocial behaviour that really gets people’s backs up, and rightly so.

“It’s thoughtless, selfish and ruins shared spaces for everyone. Not only that, litter clearance and disposal costs hundreds of millions of pounds for councils every year – money that could be going on vital services.

“If litter louts can’t put their rubbish in the bin, perhaps we can hit them in the pocket instead?”

The Government is expected to publish a new strategy on litter in the next few months.

Adrian Evans, chief executive of the Clean for the Queen campaign ahead of Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday in April, urged people to challenge those who drop litter.

“It can be quite a scary thing because you are pointing a finger of blame, you are casting aspersions on the character of the person who has chucked the litter,” he said.

“But the way I have done it in the past is to treat it as though they have made a mistake and something has inadvertently fallen out of their bag or pocket. Sort of ‘oh no, did you mean to drop that?’ ”