Crackdown on abandoned cars launched

Untaxed and unregistered vehicles will be towed away and their owners fined as part of a crackdown to remove thousands of abandoned vehicles from Britain's streets.

Over 300,000 vehicles are abandoned nationwide every year, acting as a "magnet for crime, anti-social behaviour and arson", according to the Home Office. A further one million are uninsured and untaxed for more than three months and with no current keeper and are likely to be abandoned in the future.

The government has said that, as a result of today's announcement, it will cut the number of abandoned vehicles by 25% to less than 250,000 by 2008.

In addition to giving local authorities more powers to immediately seize and destroy vehicles, owners could face increased fees and charges to better reflect the cost of removal and storage.

The costs to the taxpayers of car owners refusing to tax then abandoning their vehicle is enormous: investigating and removing nuisance vehicles currently costs local authorities across the country £26 million annually; vehicle arson costs £230 million a year to clean up; failure to tax vehicles adds up to a £93 million bill in lost revenue; and unlicensed and uninsured drivers are estimated to add £30 to every motor insurance policy.

Keith Hill, Minister for Urban Policy, said: "Nuisance vehicles, whether abandoned, untaxed or unlicensed, blight neighbourhoods across the country. They damage our environment and our communities, and they attract criminal damage, vandalism and arson. They also divert public money from other important local services."

He added: "Drivers have a personal responsibility to dispose of their vehicles safely. Simply dumping cars will not be tolerated. Only by working together can we stop this disturbing trend, and improve where we live, for the benefit of all."

The crackdown comes on the same day that all 32 London boroughs announced they now remove nuisance vehicles within 72 hours of a report from a member of the public as part of new initiative called 'Operation Scrap-It'.

(gmcg/sp)