Andy Burnham has ordered a new crackdown on gangs profiting from illegal waste, promising to clean up three more of the country’s “toxic dumps”.

The plan will see cash, cars and property seized from criminals, alongside expanded roles for police, the National Crime Agency, and frontline Environment Agency (EA) officers.

Fines for waste offences will rise from £300 to £5,000, while drone deployment will also increase.

Local mayors will lead efforts in their areas, while a reformed partnership between national and regional agencies and councils will facilitate “better intelligence and capability sharing”.

After clearing thousands of tonnes of rubbish, including near Oxfordshire's River Cherwell, three further sites have been selected for clearance.

The targeted areas are Power Station Road, Isle of Sheppey, Kent; Aymer Close, Runnymede, Surrey; and Midland Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

The government has said the new sites contain around 22,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste combined and are harming an estimated 2,900 families.

Mr Burnham said: “These toxic dumps have blighted communities for too long. I said we would clean them up – and that’s exactly what we’re announcing today.

“The days of making easy money out of waste are over. We’re giving authorities the powers to hunt down the people responsible. We will seize their assets and shut their operations down.

“These mountains of rubbish have been a clear sign to communities that politics hasn’t been working for them or their area.

“This government is going to tackle the issues that have been ignored by Westminster for too long and bring back hope.”

Clearing up the three new sites is subject to feasibility assessments and they have been prioritised based on scale, risk to nearby communities, environmental damage, and links to persistent non-compliance and organised waste crime.

The package builds on the waste crime action plan, which involved clearing existing sites and stopping the new ones by going after the organised crime networks behind them.

A new Waste Crime Crackdown Group, chaired by Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle, will also bring regulators and law enforcement together in an effort to dismantle gangs and deliver results.

“This isn’t just about people dumping rubbish,” she said.

“Large-scale waste sites are fuelled by serious, organised crime, and we need to use the full force of the law to tackle it and root it out at source.

“Communities have been subjected to horrendous conditions and denied the pride they deserve in the places they call home. This ends now.

“We are cleaning up sites, but we are also stopping the cycle, driving faster prevention and disruption, better intelligence, and stronger co-ordination across the system.”

The first two areas which will see the new “region-led” approach will be West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, both of which are Labour-led.

EA chief executive Philip Duffy said: “We know how much damage illegal waste sites do to the communities that live near them.

“By strengthening our intelligence and analysis capability, and working more closely with regional partners, Environment Agency teams across the country will be better placed to stay well ahead of the criminals behind this activity and support the recovery of the places we call home.”