Fees and charges levied by councils for waste collection rose by nearly 37% over a six year period in which bin collections have become less frequent in many areas, a new report suggests.
English local authorities raised more than £147 million from fees and charges for services such as garden waste and special collections in 2015-16, compared to nearly £108 million in 2010-11, adjusted for inflation, according to research from the TaxPayer's Alliance.
The report also found a near 109% increase in charges and fees for airports, harbour and toll facilities, and a 22% rise in money taken in for birth, death and marriage registrations.
But the TaxPayer's Alliance acknowledged the total amount of money councils have raised from charges and fees over the period fell by more than £470 million.
Although the proportion of council spending raised from charges and fees increased from 8.73% to 9.64%, at the same time many have faced large real terms cuts in the money they receive from central government.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils will have seen their core central government funding cut by 54% (£16 billion) between 2010 and 2020.
Responding to the report, councillor Claire Kober, chair of the Local Government Association's resources board, said: "This report clearly shows that councils receive almost £500 million less in income from fees and charges than they did five years ago.
"Faced with escalating costs and unprecedented funding cuts since 2010, this is a tremendous effort by councils to keep fees and charges low for hard-pressed residents.
"The bigger picture is that councils face an overall £5.8 billion funding gap by 2020.
"Even if councils stopped filling potholes, maintaining parks and open spaces, closed all children's centres, libraries, museums, leisure centres, turned off every street light and shut all discretionary bus routes they still would not have saved enough money to plug this gap by the end of the decade."
TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive John O'Connell said: "These are considerable rate rises which will hit residents in England hard.
"In many instances people are being asked to pay more for services that have actually been reduced, such as fortnightly bin collections."
