IECR
Research into the everyday behaviours that shape Britain’s shared spaces, and policies to improve them.
Our mission
To give government and local authorities the evidence they need to fix the everyday problems of Britain’s shared spaces and foster greater levels of civic engagement.
IECR is an independent, non-profit research organisation focused on understanding the behaviours that shape our communities and local environment, and how to improve them. We address issues such as littering, fly-tipping and broader civil disobedience, using the latest methods in data and social science.
Litter and neglect are worst in the most deprived neighbourhoods, where incomes, health and educational attainment lag furthest behind. Yet neighbours there help one another as much as anywhere else. Our research looks at the conditions people live with as well as how they behave, because policy needs to address both.
Mapping fly-tipping in England
An estimate of where recorded fly-tipping falls across England, how much more unrecorded fly-tipping there is on farms, how councils compare and what drives it.
Search any postcode, council, constituency or ward for a one-page report on where it stands, compare councils with similar councils and wards with similar wards, see how far people are from a recycling centre, and download every figure as open data.
- Recorded
- 1.26 million
- fly-tipping incidents recorded by councils in England in 2024/25.
- Concentrated
- 47%
- of recorded fly-tipping falls in the tenth of neighbourhoods with the highest rates.
- On farms
- 108,000
- more incidents a year on farmland, which councils’ records miss: an estimate, with a range of 27,000 to 280,000.
Ongoing research
Work under way now, to be published as reports, briefings and posts as each piece is finished.
- Litter enforcement
A cost-benefit appraisal of litter cameras on the motorway network
A Treasury Green Book appraisal of number-plate cameras at motorway junctions to catch littering from vehicles: what they would cost, what cleaner verges and the fines would be worth, and how that compares with clearing the litter more often.
- Civic life
Charitable giving as a measure of the social contract
Whether how much people in an area give and volunteer can stand in for how far they trust one another, and how that moves with deprivation, education and what the police record there.
- Anti-social behaviour
What police records of anti-social behaviour can and cannot tell us
Where anti-social behaviour is recorded across England and what goes with it, how far those records match what people report about litter and fly-tipping, and why some deprived neighbourhoods record less of it than their conditions would predict.
- Fly-tipping
Where traders can take their waste
A register of the sites across England that take business and construction waste, with their prices, opening hours and who may use them, to test whether poor access explains part of the trade waste that councils find dumped.
Why we’re here
Changes in how we live are showing up in our streets and parks.
The way we live and work has changed hugely in one generation. We eat and drink a lot more on the move, order almost anything to the door in 24 hours, access cheap goods used once and then discarded, and travel around on e-bikes and scooters. Streets are full of packaging, roadsides are used as dumping grounds, and disposable vapes and nitrous oxide canisters are discarded in parks, with children consuming products never designed for them.
At the same time, the habits that once held communities together are fading. Fewer people volunteer than a decade ago, fewer give to charity. Only 11% of adults think their local area has improved in the last two years. Those habits are weakest where disadvantage is greatest. In the most deprived neighbourhoods, people are half as likely as those in the least deprived to volunteer with a group or club every month, or to be proud of where they live, and adults with no qualifications are half as likely as graduates to take part in civic life.
Problems like these sit in an awkward place: too small and complex for national attention and too diffuse for any single council to solve. IECR’s role is to be the centre of knowledge on solutions to these problems and to bring about effective, positive change at local and national levels.
- Volunteering
- 17%
- of adults volunteer with a group or club every month, down from 27% in 2013/14.
- Giving
- 67%
- gave money to charity in the past four weeks, down from 82% in 2013/14.
- Pride in place
- 38%
- of people in the most deprived neighbourhoods are proud to live there, against 79% in the least deprived.
- Litter and deprivation
- 2.8×
- as much drinks and food litter in the most deprived fifth of areas as in the least deprived.
Why it matters
Local streets are a voting issue, and few of the fixes on offer have been properly evaluated.
Ahead of England’s May 2026 local elections, more than half of adults in the areas voting said the condition of streets, roads and pavements would be very important to their vote, and among over-55s no issue was cited more often. Most people think litter is getting worse, and parties across the political spectrum have answered with tougher fines, vehicle seizures and penalty points. Few of these measures have been rigorously evaluated.
- Local elections
- 53%
- of adults in English council areas with May 2026 elections said the condition of streets, roads and pavements would be very important to their vote, more than said so of housing or climate change.
- Over-55s
- 67%
- of over-55s said the condition of streets, roads and pavements would be very important to their vote. No issue was cited more often.
- Litter
- 77%
- of adults in England think litter has become more of a problem in recent years.
The missing What Works Centre
Government relies on independent What Works Centres to tell it which interventions work, from education to policing. None covers the behaviour that shapes our shared spaces.
- EducationEducation Endowment Foundation
- Health and careNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence
- Crime reductionCollege of Policing
- Local growthWhat Works Centre for Local Economic Growth
- Youth employmentYouth Futures Foundation
- HomelessnessCentre for Homelessness Impact
- Children and familiesFoundations
- Later lifeCentre for Ageing Better
- WalesWales Centre for Public Policy
- Civic and environmental behaviourNo centreThe gap IECR is being set up to fill.
Evidence-led policies
Policy interventions work only with an evidence base to support them.
We work with national and local authorities to understand which policies are most effective in changing behaviour to improve communities and the local environment. We study the effectiveness of taxes, fines and enforcement to discourage littering and fly-tipping, and the benefits of positive messaging to change behaviour. We also work with the corporate sector to understand how producers and retailers can better educate and reinforce positive social engagement.
46% to 11%
View chart data
| Year | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1974 | 45.6% |
| 1976 | 41.8% |
| 1978 | 40.2% |
| 1980 | 39.4% |
| 1982 | 35.3% |
| 1984 | 34% |
| 1986 | 32.7% |
| 1988 | 31.6% |
| 1990 | 30% |
| 1992 | 28.4% |
| 1994 | 26.8% |
| 1996 | 28% |
| 1998 | 27.1% |
| 2000 | 27% |
| 2001 | 26.9% |
| 2002 | 25.9% |
| 2003 | 26% |
| 2004 | 24.6% |
| 2005 | 23.9% |
| 2006 | 22% |
| 2007 | 20.9% |
| 2008 | 21.1% |
| 2009 | 21% |
| 2010 | 20.3% |
| 2011 | 20.2% |
| 2012 | 19.6% |
| 2013 | 18.8% |
| 2014 | 18.1% |
| 2015 | 17.2% |
| 2016 | 15.8% |
| 2017 | 15.1% |
| 2018 | 14.7% |
| 2019 | 14.1% |
| 2020 | 13.1% |
| 2021 | 12.3% |
| 2022 | 11.7% |
| 2023 | 11.1% |
| 2024 | 10.6% |
13% fewer deaths
- 13 in every 100 alcohol-specific deaths no longer happen
- 87 in every 100 still do
98% fewer bags
- 98 in every 100 single-use bags are no longer handed out
- 2 in every 100 still are
What we’ll be working on
Three areas where environmental and social problems overlap.
Our research spans multiple areas including:
Environment
Litter and the neglect of shared spaces.
Litter, fly-tipping, disposable vapes, nitrous oxide and neighbourhood noise.
Society and health
How new habits and new work change how people live.
What England’s under-16 sales ban will do to energy drink consumption, and how gig economy work affects wellbeing. Energy drinks are linked to poor sleep and lower school performance.
Public bodies
Why some councils get results where others don’t.
How the structure and incentives of public bodies shape their performance.
How we work
From finding the causes to drafting measures that councils and departments can use.
We build a project team around each question, working with academics, councils, other NGOs and the public, through surveys and citizen science. The results come out as reports, media work and events, both in person and online.
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