Liverpool Council to take full control over city's bin collections

Bin collections and street cleaning are to be taken over by Liverpool Council wholly in the next 12 months. In the last eight years, public-facing roles like emptying litter bins and carrying out burials have all been delivered by the council-owned subsidiary company, Liverpool Streetscene Services Ltd (LSSL).

Now city leaders have taken the decision to put the wheels in motion to move 600 staff onto the authority’s books to shape its services for the future. The decision comes as findings from a residents’ survey issued this year said cleanliness across the city was their number one priority and statistics put Liverpool’s performance in key areas below the national average.

The move to insource has been “heavily influenced” by citizens’ responses to the annual report. It said the council believes combining the knowledge and skills of the existing workforce who deliver neighbourhood-based services to work alongside employees involved in direct service delivery will have significant benefits to both the authority and residents.

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A cabinet report considered by members at Liverpool Town Hall on Tuesday outlined how a “steady” housing and population growth in Liverpool has contributed to an increase in the overall amount of household waste generated across the city. New legislation requiring weekly food waste collection from April 2026 and national recycling targets will “put more pressure on existing services.”

It added: “Without positive action to address current levels of performance by improving service delivery, the cost of collecting and disposing of litter and waste will continue to increase, placing avoidable pressure on the council’s budget.”

As a result a joint working group has been established between LSSL and city managers to establish a way forward, and found that an insourcing arrangement would also enable stronger enforcement against environmental crime and anti-social behaviour. The transfer of LSSL staff, which will involve consultation with all stakeholders, will take place over the next year and is due to be completed by October 2025 - two years before existing contracts are due to end.

Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, cabinet member for communities, neighbourhoods and streetscene, said: “These are absolutely fundamental to everyone, they are universal services, they affect every resident in every part of the city, everyone experiences them as well as our visitors and tourists to the city so it has an impact on the economic growth of the city as well. It massively impacts on everybody’s life and the quality of everybody’s life.”

The cabinet member acknowledged the move was a “really big commitment,” adding: “A lot of work still to do, a lot of work has gone on, it’s been a very careful consideration but we have to make some changes here, we have to improve these services.” Alongside the changes to staffing operations, the council will also look to review around 17,000 properties which currently receive a weekly wheeled bin collection to determine if they can be moved onto a fortnightly collection.

Cllr Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool Council, said: “Genuinely this could be one of the most consequential decisions this cabinet will ever take actually. The reason I say that is the service areas we’re talking about are the most universal of services.” He said everybody in the city had a stake in the plans and people wanted to see improvements in them.