HOUSEHOLDS could face piles of rotting rubbish for weeks under Labour’s new bin rules – all while council tax bills are set to soar by an average of £109.
Ministers have quietly axed Tory plans to ensure fortnightly rubbish collections, opening the door to three-weekly or even monthly pickups.
The scrapped proposals had aimed to prevent bad smells and vermin by setting a “minimum backstop” for councils to follow.
These plans were left incomplete when Parliament dissolved ahead of the general election.
Rather than reviving them, Labour’s new guidance – slipped out during Friday’s assisted dying debate – gives town halls freedom to set their own schedules, with no minimum frequency.
Leaked plans from Green-run Bristol already propose reducing black bin collections to once a month, sparking fury among residents.
And Labour-run Wales has made monthly or three-weekly collections the norm, with council bin bureaucrats claiming the cuts are needed to hit net zero targets.
The new guidance also comes as households brace for a 5 percent council tax hike – the maximum allowed without a local referendum.
For the average Band D bill, currently £2,171, this would mean an extra £109 next year, pushing annual payments to over £2,280.
Shadow Communities Secretary Kevin Hollinrake told The Sun: “Despite promising to freeze Council Tax, Keir Starmer has allowed councils to raise them by an average of £110 per year and will now allow them to leave rubbish rotting for a month.
“Brits deserve better than this garbage, and Labour needs to do what they were elected to do; stand up for citizens not simply roll over for their union paymasters.”
Labour hit back, insisting their new rules will simplify recycling and reduce the burden on households.
Under the shake up, councils will be told to give people up to four bins per house as a “default” to separate waste.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed blasted Tory plans to force families to juggle seven bins by 2030 as a “fiasco” that would have caused chaos across the country.
He said: “This Labour Government is introducing a streamlined approach to recycling to end to the postcode lottery, simplify bin collections and clean up our streets for good.”
Councils had been left in limbo after Rishi Sunak abandoned a Conservative policy that would have required local authorities to collect waste in up to seven separate containers.
A survey by the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that residents in Blaenau Gwent, Cotswold, and Merthyr Tydfil were using as many as ten bins, whereas those in Gosport had only two.
