John McGeachy, senior campaign manager at Age UK London, outlines why public toilets are an important consideration for council teams.

Most people agree on the need to improve public toilet provision, but few would argue improvements are easy. One of the main challenges is the absence of funding from central Government. Despite this there is a positive story to be told.

People often have different groups in mind when they think about the need to improve provision. It might be people with health conditions, older people, families with young children, but the reality is that everyone benefits from greater availability of public toilets.

The Age UK London and London Councils conference earlier this year saw staff from over 19 London local authorities coming together. The aim of the conference, entitled, ‘Improving public toilet provision in times of financial pressure’, was to share innovative approaches when it came to public toilet provision and to offer a space where connections between council departments facing many of the same challenges could be made.

The speakers were from Cardiff, Westminster, Richmond upon Thames, and Tower Hamlets councils. The stories they came to tell were about innovation, resourcefulness, and hard work to make communities more welcoming.

The backdrop for work to improve provision has been the significant decrease in public toilets (32% decrease between 2000 and 2018). Yet in 2022 Age UK London carried out a survey amongst older Londoners and responses highlighted that 90% of people surveyed consider the availability of toilet provision before they leave home.

Innovation, Age-friendly and Community Toilet Schemes (CTS)

The attendees heard from Cardiff City Council who said that in Wales local authorities are required to have a strategy for public toilet provision. Cardiff City Council were keen to link their toilet strategy to other initiatives focusing on inclusion. They integrated their work into the Cardiff Age-Friendly programme and the priority was the improvement to the Welsh capital’s Community Toilets Scheme (CTS).

In contrast, at Westminster City Council, their focus was tackling anti-social behavior linked to the area's night-time economy. They aim to ensure commercial viability by charging 50p at some toilets, which the public can pay using contactless methods. This will raise vital funds for the council.

Community Toilet Schemes (CTSs) are part of the solution to a lack of public toilets. Representatives from the boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Tower Hamlets, and the local charity Lewisham Local, outlined how they had considered incentives for businesses as part of their schemes. They had all grappled with the question of whether to offer stipends to participating businesses. In Tower Hamlets the strategy to incentivise business participation included sponsorship to help fund the supply of free products such as cleaning products toilet rolls and offering staff training.

Lewisham Local developed their CTS to replace the expensive and unloved automated toilets run by the council. After a year-long pilot, 60 local organisations from cinemas to cafes were brought on board and an agreement was drawn up for local businesses allowing them to use the scheme’s branding. The scheme costs around £49,000 per year and a sizable proportion of this goes towards stipends for participating businesses.

The stipends, which act as a key incentive, range from £200 to £1,000 depending on the quantity of toilets offered and other factors such as usage. An annual qualitative survey is carried out with members to see how the scheme is going and businesses are encouraged to enter the borough’s Loo of the Year competition.

Richmond upon Thames, whose CTS began in 2008, is seen as a leading light among the 14 London Community Toilet Schemes. Stipends of £800 to £1,000 are paid to the 50 participating businesses, most of which are pubs and cafes rather than shops. Around half of the participating schemes offer toilets with wheelchair access and baby changing facilities.

Progress continues in this and other CTS schemes. Whilst for some councils this may not solve the problem the discussion was interesting. There is a genuine interest in getting this right and recognition that this is a public health issue but something that can affect local economies. If residents of boroughs are thinking again about visiting town centres and high streets or not staying as long, then this is a problem to keep bustling shopping areas going.

The ideas discussed by the contributors at this joint event with London Councils represented just a snapshot of the proactive approaches underway to improve public toilet provision. There can be a lot of negatives around public toilets and local authorities, but there are many reasons for hope to solve the problems and many innovative stories to be told.

Resources from the event can be found here.