By: Callum McGoldrick, researcher
Though Westminster may not like to hear it, the TaxPayers’ Alliance can tell them that most of the country cares more about their bins than Sue Gray’s salary or the Conservative leadership race. Bin collection is something that every resident needs, and when there is a failure to collect it adequately, it creates an§ obvious problem quickly. It’s the most basic of public services. There are three main kinds of rubbish, so surely that means three bins? After all, the Waste Regulations of 2011 only requires councils to break down rubbish into three categories. Every further sub-category is optional. More bins mean increased work for bin men (and residents). So, there is an incentive for councils to want to use as few bins as possible.
This is the case for Gosport, who only require residents to use two bins, while 97 councils only require three. But at the other end of the spectrum, there’s Blaenau Gwent, Cotswold and Merthyr Tydfil, who require residents to use ten bins. The additional categories in these places are due to the separation of recycling into numerous categories, such as having paper and cardboard in separate bins, coffee pods as a solo category and small electrical items in a separate bin to batteries.
Why the differences? Five of the ten councils that require the most bins are in Wales, but we can’t blame the Welsh Government - the top ten also includes councils from the South of England and London. Conversely, the ten councils that require the fewest bins are across Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the South of England and London. So regional factors aren’t to blame. Another possible factor could be the political party in control, but all of the major parties are represented in both the top and bottom ten. Ergo, no link between political stripes and the number of bins.
Maybe it’s a question of cash. We undertook regression analysis comparing the average band D council tax and the number of bins. Though it’s not the only factor, the number of bins is statistically significant to higher levels of tax. But what are people actually paying for? There is no evidence that places with ten bins manage their waste any better than those with two or three. Even more importantly, there is no evidence that residents are happier with those services. Taking the examples above, we actually see residents preferring councils with fewer bins, with Gosport Council maintaining 83 per cent resident satisfaction to just 50 per cent for the Cotswolds. In fact, perhaps this discrepancy is a result of residents needing to spend more of their time sorting rubbish and having space taken up in their gardens with an inordinate number of bins. Shock, horror: maybe residents actually prefer simpler services.
Governments at all levels should focus on delivering services as simply as possible. In the case of councils, higher taxes do not lead to better services, just more complex ones. It’s true across all levels of government. Politicians go to great lengths to tell us how much money they have spent on a given service, hoping to convince the public that this must mean that the service has been made better. In fact, they may have just aided it in becoming more complex.
Look at the NHS, which receives more money than ever, yet even Labour admits it needs urgent reform. NHS England themselves understand that “a complex adaptive system tends to inertia”. Complexity doesn’t mean better outcomes but it does mean higher costs and more difficulty coping with change. There are over 200 trusts and most operate on completely different systems meaning, for example, that a blood test form issued by one trust could not be processed by a different trust. This is a nightmare for anyone unable to visit a blood testing location in the same trust area as their GP. Like many who commute into London, I have repeatedly run into the issue of needing to stay home from work for a day to go for a 15-minute blood test that could be done in a clinic local to my office.
Over complication in public services is a growing problem in the 21st century, when they should be becoming more lean and more flexible. Local authorities receive and spend more money than at any other time in history. Yet they are unable to fill in potholes while also charging residents increasing fees for services on top of their council tax. But complicated and expensive services are often no better than simple and cheaper ones, at least in the eyes of taxpayers. Politicians miss the point when they equate higher spending with good services: taxpayers can be just as disappointed with overcomplicated services as with underfunded ones. All levels of government should remain focused on providing the services they are required to provide at the best value possible, not creating ever-costlier and more complex systems. Sometimes, less is more.