Officers want SUEZ to keep MK's bins, street cleaning and grass cutting to 2033, and to drop the promised 'big sack' collection for a bulky waste rethink.
SUEZ looks set to keep emptying Milton Keynes’ bins until 2033. Council officers are negotiating a five-year extension to the company’s contract, which also covers street cleaning, grass cutting and play areas.
The plan goes before the council’s Environment and Place Scrutiny Committee tonight, Wednesday 14 October, at 7pm. The meeting papers say the committee is not being asked whether to extend. It is being asked what the council should get in return.
The same papers propose dropping the “big sack” collection promised in the Council Plan. Officers want to improve the existing paid bulky waste service instead.
What is being proposed
The contract started in September 2023, when most of the city’s 119,000 households moved from sacks to wheeled bins. It runs for five years, with an option to extend for five more. The council’s January 2023 release announcing SUEZ set out the same terms.
The officers’ 33-page commissioning paper says the extended contract would end in 2033. Work on re-tendering it, or bringing it in house, would start in 2031.
The two papers do not agree on who decides. The covering report says a Delegated Decision is intended in November 2026. The commissioning paper says a final decision goes to Cabinet in December 2026.
Neither paper says what the contract costs each year, or what an extension would cost.
Why officers want to extend
The case rests mostly on cost risk that SUEZ is carrying instead of the council. The paper lists:
- National Insurance. The employer rate rose from 13.8% to 15% in April 2025. SUEZ has absorbed the extra cost, put at £417,000 from April 2025 and £4,598,077 over the life of the contract. The paper says the council would have to pay it under a new contract or an in-house service.
- Fuel and wages. The contract’s price indices have not kept pace with SUEZ’s real costs, which the paper says has left the company £744,000 down so far. Officers propose keeping the indices unchanged until 2033, so diesel price rises stay with SUEZ.
- Procurement. The last tender cost about £1.7 million. The paper says the council will soon be running a third large waste procurement, for recycling centres, haulage and the transfer station.
Not every cost stays with SUEZ. From 1 April 2027 the plan is to give former Serco staff the same holiday terms as other SUEZ staff, worth up to five extra days a year with long service. SUEZ would absorb the £311,000 cost for now. The paper says the council proposes to put forward the cost for the extension period. Pay rises are already fixed for the rest of the contract at the highest of RPI, SUEZ’s own salary review, or the Real Living Wage as a floor.
How the service has performed, by the council’s own figures
The paper describes performance as “very strong”. Its main figures are:
- fewer than 100 missed collections for every 100,000, a failure rate under 0.1%
- about one complaint for every 4,094 collections, or 0.024%
- no rounds left unfinished and carried into the next day since wheeled bins arrived
- a 40% fall in missed-bin claims that turn out not to be genuine, since crews began logging bins that were not put out or were contaminated
It also says what has not worked. The penalty system was designed around sack collections. It now needs to target bins that crews do not put back, and repeat misses on assisted collections for residents who cannot move their own bins. The old Serco contract had one penalty of £500, whatever the scale of failure, and then termination.
The paper admits landscaping has lacked performance measures. New ones are proposed for the extension, including the number of grass cuts on grid roads. Weeds and debris on roundabouts are called “the biggest outstanding challenge” in street cleaning.
The big sack collection is out
The Council Plan proposed a “big sack” collection for larger household items. The paper recommends against it. Officers say Milton Keynes already charges £25 to collect up to three bulky items, against an average of about £42 at the councils they compared.
Instead they suggest an “enhanced” bulky waste service. Ideas include:
- keeping an affordable core charge for standard household items
- reviewing charges for DIY and building waste
- a possible discount for residents on means-tested benefits
- better online booking and collection updates
- more reuse and recycling of what is collected
The paper says the costs are still being worked out and would need their own budget decision.
The £25 figure does not appear on the council’s own bulky waste page, which says the price is set by a points system and shown only when you fill in the form.
Other changes in the plan
- Flats. Dedicated recycling rounds for blocks of flats from April 2027, which this committee recommended after reviewing problems with flats collections.
- Weedkiller. A target to cut herbicide use by 50% by 2030, from 2026 levels.
- Parish and town councils. Twelve already run grounds maintenance on 35% of council-owned land, outside Parks Trust land. The extension would let more take over parks and play areas, possibly on leases of up to 999 years. That would need its own consultation and decision.
- The app. The council’s MK app, which SUEZ helped fund, has been downloaded 7,500 times. Officers want it to take bulky waste bookings and reports of overflowing litter bins.
What it means for you
Your collection day and your bins do not change. If the extension is agreed, the same crews and the same company will carry on until 2033.
The bulky waste decision matters if you were waiting for the big sack collection. It is unlikely to arrive in that form. A cheaper rate for residents on benefits is being explored, but nothing has been agreed or costed.
To have a say, contact your ward councillor before the decision in November or December. You can watch tonight’s committee from the meeting page. For your collection day and what goes in which bin, see our bin collection days page.
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