Per household spending by councils in England on street cleaning has fallen by almost 30% in real terms since 2009/10

It is  now down to just £29.6 per annum per household

That’s a weekly outlay of only 56p – a tiny fraction of  what we spend on  alcoholic drinks  (£16.30/w)  and  take away food and snacks (£10.20/w)

It is absurd to say that we cannot afford to double or treble the current level of street cleansing.

This would surely be the a crucial part of any plan to to solve the litter problem.

Yet additional funding for street cleansing was not even considered or discussed in the Government’s Litter Strategy for England.

Data and calculations

2009 /10 
Total Expenditure £885.010 million
Net of income £763.629 million  ( /21.716 households = £35.16 / household / annum
Number of households (2009) 21,716,400
Consumer price index (2009) 87.9
£763.629 million /21.716 households = £35.16 / household / annum

2017/18
Total Expenditure £750.157 million (-15.2%)
Net of income £662.711 million (-13.2%) (/22.694 households = £29.20 / household /annum)
Number of households (2017) 22,694,600 (+4.5%)
Consumer price index (2017) 103.6 (+7.8%)
£662.711 million /22.694 households = £29.20 / household /annum

In 2009/10 prices £29.20 would only be worth £29.20 x 87.9/103.6 = £24.77

Therefore in real terms spending on street cleaning per household has fallen by £35.16 – £24.77 = £10.39 pa  or by £10.39/ 35.16 =  29.5%

Source of data

Local authority revenue expenditure and financing  Select year and go to “Individual local authority data – outturn” then select the RO5 spreadsheet and scroll down to Line 270

Total number of households by region and country of the UK, 1996 to 2017

CPIH INDEX 00: ALL ITEMS 2015=100

Family spending in the UK: April 2017 to March 2018

Peter Silverman
27th January 2019