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LGA spokesperson responds to a planning guidance report on fracking by MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

"If the Government’s air quality plans are to be successful, they not only need to be underpinned by local flexibility and sufficient funding but also accompanied by robust national action."

“We are clear that it should be up to local communities to decide whether or not to host fracking operations in their areas."

“Fly-tipping is unsightly and unacceptable environmental vandalism. This new analysis shows the scale of the fly-tipping epidemic we face in this country."

Cllr Martin Tett, Local Government Association Environment spokesman, responds to the Government’s proposals to increase plastic recycling, including a deposit scheme for plastic bottles.

“Councils have made significant progress in increasing levels of recycling. As a nation we need to go much further, much faster – it is essential that we protect our environment by tackling this issue at the root cause, by cutting unrecyclable material out of the market in the first place. “We have long called for industry to step up and show more responsibility and councils are keen to get on and tackle it – we want producers to sit down with us and discuss how the design and recycling of packaging can be improved so that they impact on the environment as little as possible. “As one example,

“Good air quality is vital for our health and quality of life as well as the environment and councils would support a national public health campaign to raise awareness of the risks of poor air quality and the actions people can take to help tackle it."

“Clearing up fly-tipping costs councils more than £57 million a year – money that could be spent on other services, like caring for the elderly, protecting children or tackling homelessness."

“We want to work with supermarkets and manufacturers so that we avoid having unrecyclable waste in the first place, and would urge them to switch to recyclable packaging where possible.”

“Litter and fly-tipping costs council taxpayers around £1 billion a year. We would now urge Government to build further on this encouraging step and hand councils the powers they need to rid communities of litter."