Rachel Reeves’s hated Budget blamed for London ‘grot’ as one fifth say capital is filthy

Rachel Reeves’ Budget has come under fire as London suffers from “grotification” with councils struggling to clean up the streets – with 17 percent of residents describing the nation’s capital as “filthy”.

The putrid pong of rotting garbage and rat-attracting piles of litter were recently voted one of most popular ways to describe London, according to a YouGov poll.

Respondents were asked, “which of the following best describes London?” and nearly a fifth of people replied “dirty”, coming close behind the most popular answer which was “expensive” with 60 percent.

London Boroughs are responsible for litter, but some councils are worried their budgets won’t be able to stretch this year to tackle the mountain of waste produced each day in the capital.

According when questioned about litter several local councils blamed their own budget considerations and even the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ rise in National Insurance making it more expensive to employ rubbish-collecting contractors.

Cllr Julia Neden-Watts, a Liberal Democrat from Richmond in West London, told the the increase for employers national insurance contributions announced by Labour could hit councils hard making it more expensive to employ waste contractors. She said Richmond Council was having to “work smarter”.

Cllr Neden Watts, the Deputy Leader of Richmond Council, told Express.co.uk: “Local authority budgets across the country are under pressure because of growing social care and temporary accommodation costs as well as Special Educational Needs responsibilities. We must meet these needs, which puts pressure on other parts of a council’s budget.

“In Richmond upon Thames, we are trying to be efficient and proactive in maintaining services for residents. For example, our community mega skip initiative allows people to dispose of items responsibly near to their homes, with reusable items being upcycled and bicycles repaired and rehomed, whilst keeping local environments tidy.”

Professor Tony Travers, an expert in local and national government at the London School of Economics, has now coined the term “grotification”, meaning declining standards in the cleanliness of streets.

He told the : “Most people feeling that if the streets, parks and gardens they live in are scruffy and not properly cared for, they don’t feel good.

“If we look at the cuts to local government funding, social care has to be protected – everything else including street cleaning, weeding, graffiti cleaning, has taken a much deeper cut, up to half in some cases.

“That means our neighbourhoods look less good and that affects our pride of place.”

Havering Council in East London is trying to recruit volunteers to monitor so-called “grot spots”. The council’s leader Ray Morgon told the 70 percent of the authority’s budget was spent on housing and social care and that spending had been in “decline”.

Cllr Morgon told Express.co.uk: “We have been open about our financial situation – despite being independently verified as an efficient and well-run council, Havering is still struggling to publish a balanced budget.

“Last year, we had to take out a £54m capitalisation direction (a type of loan) from the Government to continue to pay for vital statutory services. This year, we face similar issues, and have been lobbying the new Labour government to urgently address the funding formula and give councils the funding the need.”

In October, Croydon Council launched the “Cleaner Croydon campaign”, which is aimed at “working with residents, businesses and partners to help keep our streets clean and restore pride”.

Initiatives include asking residents to report waste problems using the “Love Clean Streets” app or by volunteering to become a Street Champion.

Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon, said: “My key priority is creating a cleaner and healthier Croydon for our residents and businesses, so we are protecting the services that we know are important to them, such as waste collections and street cleansing.

“Through our Cleaner Croydon campaign, we are working with our communities to help restore pride in our neighbourhoods. We’ve launched new initiatives like our targeted blitz campaign in local high streets, working with residents to tackle their priorities, and supporting businesses to keep their premises clean and graffiti-free.

“We work closely with our service providers, network of volunteers, street champions and friends of parks, and we have a new and improved waste contract, which will create a cleaner borough – putting more investment into the service, more cleaning schedules and better management of the service.”