TOUGHER regulations to crack down on rogue scrap metal dealers have been welcomed.

Malvern Hills District Council has agreed to adopt tough new government legislation billed as a “much more robust regime”.

The Scrap Metal Dealers Act aims to tackle ever-increasing incidents of people stealing metal from homes, churches and schools to sell it on.

High-profile buildings including the Chase School and Malvern College have all been stripped of metal in recent years, while particularly brazen thieves scaled the roof of St Matthias Church in Malvern Link and stole its copper lightning conductors, worth £3,000. Nationally there are as many as 100,000 metal thefts a year, costing the economy an estimated £260 million. The new legislation introduces separate licences for sites and collectors and gives councils powers to refuse or revoke licences.

It also gives councils powers to undertake regular inspections of dealers’ premises, and take steps to prosecute those avoiding the rules. Fines for being caught without a licence can be as high as £5,000. Ivor Pumfrey, the council’s head of community services, said it would give officers power to clamp down on unlicenced operators or “licensed ones who are operating on the margins of their licence”.

“The existing regulations go back nearly 50 years and no longer fit for purpose,” he said. Green leader Coun Julian Roskams said he felt scrap had been an “unregulated industry”. Under the new regulations a site licence will cost £290 and a collector’s one £145.