RESEARCH
BPCA research has found that UK councils regularly recommend BPCA members to their residents.
Local councils are often the first port of call when pests are found, but with so many councils no longer providing pest management services to the public, they play an important role in signposting residents to trusted professionals. BPCA and its membership are now widely recommended to communities across the country.
BPCA has been researching local authority pest management across the UK, finding significant levels of trust in the BPCA and its members. 46% of all UK local authorities use their websites to signpost residents to the BPCA and our Find a Pest Controller Tool.
In England, 52% of all Unitary and District councils recommend the BPCA to residents, 45% of councils in Northern Ireland, 38% in Scotland, and 32% in Wales.
Councils recommending that residents seek help from BPCA members points to another issue in local authorities: many no longer provide services directly to residents.
46% of all UK local authorities provide no service at all; 40% still maintain their own pest control teams, and the remaining 14% deliver service through contractors.
Of those councils that do provide some form of service, whether through contractors or their own staff, nearly a third do so exclusively with BPCA members.
Councils are not legally required to provide pest management to their residents. While councils have a duty under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 to keep their areas free of rodents, that duty extends only to acting on their own land and enforcing compliance by other property owners.
For pest management on their own properties, 61% of UK councils rely on contractors to some extent; only 34% use staff alone.
We also found that over a quarter of pest management on council property is carried out exclusively by BPCA members.
Rosina Robson, BPCA Chief Executive, said:
“BPCA members provide essential services to their local communities and should be proud of the fact that so many councils around the country trust them to support residents at their most vulnerable.”
A community response to pest management
With so many local authorities no longer having their own pest management staff, or carrying out the work themselves, knowledge may be lost at a key moment.
In England, under Awaab’s Law, and in Wales under their own new rules, councils with tenants are under increasing pressure to respond to pests correctly.
Climate change could not only increase pest numbers and the resulting risk to public health, but also bring new invasive species and disease outbreaks, such as with Aedes mosquitoes. Local authorities also have specialist roles in responding to and organising pest management under a number of national contingency plans.
To ensure our councils retain that awareness of pest management, BPCA will hold a webinar on 12 November. It is open to anyone who wishes to attend, but is specially aimed at those employed in councils whose work affects, or is affected by public health pests, including:
- Local authority pest management technicians and managers
- Housing officers and social housing teams
- Environmental Health Officers
- Waste and neighbourhood services
- Parks and public spaces teams
- Licensing, planning and emergency response professionals
- Facilities and property managers.
If you wish to attend, please sign up on our events page at bpca.org.uk/events