Fly-tipping is to be combated with investment in drones, CCTV and high-tech tags that can identify the source of dumped rubbish.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds revealed £45 million more is to be spent on enforcement, and warned the gangs trashing Britain that they will also be fined and forced to clean up streets and parks, while points could be slapped on their driving licences and their cars may be crushed.

She added: ‘We are coming after you – nothing is off the table.’

She has given the Environment Agency police-style powers and wants to see the National Crime Agency help tackle the menace using drones and CCTV evidence.

Illegal dumps account for 20 per cent of all waste in Britain, costing the economy some £1billion, while the fly-tipping gangs use vast profits to bankroll human-trafficking, drug- smuggling and gun-running.

Local authorities often pay middlemen to dispose of their rubbish in landfill sites. But some corrupt firms hand a cut of this money to criminals, who instead dump the waste across the countryside.

Ms Reynolds said ‘waste barcodes’ are being introduced on rubbish that will be able to identify which council collected it and also which middleman is involved.

Ms Reynolds said she plans to work with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to go further.

Contractors work to remove the ten-ft-high pile of waste from Watery Lane, on the outskirts of Lichfield in Staffordshire

She added there is a ‘huge human impact’ from fly-tipping.

‘The rat infestations, the smell, terrible air pollution. I met someone with a young child who has had to move because of it,’ she said.

She added she is working to help farmers, whose land is often used, to protect themselves against aggressive fly-tipping gangs.