On average, houses are worth £5,500 less if they are within a quarter of a mile of a landfill site, and worth £1,600 less if they are between a quarter and a half a mile away. Houses have to be more than two miles away from a tip for their value not to be affected.

The research for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was undertaken to discover the scale of the nuisance to those who live close to landfill sites of smell, dust, litter, noise, vermin and visual intrusion. A recent study showed that babies were more likely to suffer serious birth defects if mothers live close to toxic landfill sites.

The study was based on more than 590,000 house sales around 11,300 landfill sites during 1991 to 2000. It found that landfills reduce the value of housing by a total of £2.5 billion. In Scotland, houses are worth on average 40 per cent less if they are close to a tip.

Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, said: “This study highlights one of the pressing problems for modern society — how we get rid of our rubbish. The noise, the litter, the smells, the vermin and the visual scarring in neighbourhoods near landfill sites should be borne in mind by anyone watching their binliners being thrown into the back of a dustcart.”

The study will also be used to help to assess the correct level for landfill tax. The tax was introduced in 1996 at £2 per tonne of waste, and now stands at £13 per tonne. The Government has pledged to increase it by £1 per tonne per year, to encourage more recycling. British households disposed of 22 million tonnes of rubbish last year, and the amount is growing by 3 per cent a year. Britain recycles 11 per cent of waste, one of the lowest rates in Europe.

The Government has a target of reducing biodegradable waste by half by 2010. It is putting pressure on local authorities to meet recycling targets, and recently it proposed giving them more powers to penalise homeowners who produce too much waste.

Mr Meacher said yesterday that councils needed to increase kerbside collections. “Our view is to get to these statutory targets you would have to have kerbside recycling. Two thirds of all local authorities have some kerbside collection. We are keen that that should increase and be as near universal as possible, although I have to say there is a very real problem with high rise flats.”

Claire Wilton, senior waste campaigner, at Friends of the Earth, said: “It is perfectly understandable that people do not want to live near landfill sites. Most fail to comply with licence conditions. They are smelly, noisy and create pollution every day. The Government must do more to protect the public from poorly managed landfills and set tough targets to reduce hazardous waste that is landfilled.”

Mr Meacher said: “I’m sure it is an out of sight, out of mind issue for many. But for people living close to these sites it is a pressing issue, as it is for the Government. That is why we are keen to encourage people to recycle or re-use rubbish before throwing it away.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• TV bidding war starts over Olympics
• Sofas were larger than life in TV adverts
• Driver pays fine with wheelbarrow of pennies