A 22-inch rodent nesting in a Teesside home is the tip of the iceberg, with a perfect storm of ageing wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, poor housing stock and rising temperatures.
On Monday 4th August shocking images of a rat ‘bigger than a cat’ began circulating online. The creature, found in a house in Normanby, North Yorkshire, is the largest rodent ever identified in Britain, sparking fears a new generation of ‘giants’ are walking amongst us.
With some of the poorest living conditions in Europe, the UK’s housing crisis extends well beyond energy efficiency. This ageing stock presents ample opportunity for infestations to take hold in damp cellars and attics with easy access points created through damaged building fabric. Our homes also sit on equally outdated wastewater and sanitation infrastructure long-understood to be breeding grounds for rats.
Residents in Redcar & Cleveland, Normanby’s local authority, have responded with outrage at the rodent revelation, pointing to the oversized vermin as a clear sign an longstanding problem is now getting much worse. Worryingly, considering the public health implications of rat infestations, this area is far from the worst afflicted by this problem.
Cities with high density human populations also have a lot of rodents and other pests due to the amount of rubbish and waste people create. So it’s no surprise a Freedom of Information request by wastewater specialist Drain Detectives has revealed that London and North West England claim the highest number of rat infestations. The capital currently accounts for one-quarter of all reports.
Ongoing cuts to council budgets are only making things more difficult, too. This week, The Guardian revealed that Redcar & Cleveland no longer offers pest control services to private residents, even in situations when the household cannot afford to pay for specialist teams to take action.
No isolated case, in January the BBC ran a story about South Derbyshire District Council preparing to scrap its infestation service, which had been suspended since April 2024. A sole officer had been responsible, and the authority believed the only possible solution to keep this limited provision in place would be to increase fees by 200%.
In February 2023, Oldham Council took a decision to invest £100,000 in a 12-month trial of free universal pest control services for all domestic premises in the borough. A summary report on the move outlined a number of factors that led to the pilot:
‘The problem of pests and vermin has been compounded by failing / aging property and wastewater infrastructure, reduction of proactive baiting on behalf of utility undertakers and due to increased waste, fly tipping and a significant reduction in the uptake of paid pest control contracts by those who cannot afford the costs.
‘Evidence suggests that pest and vermin disproportionately affect the poorest and least well-off sections of society, and Oldham Council data suggests that the problem has exacerbated as a result of the cost-of-living crisis with fewer residents contracting the service at a time where all indicators suggest the problem is worsening. In addition, those that are living in private rented properties are also at greater risk of being impacted by pests and the Housing Act 2004 considers certain pests a Category 1 hazard.’
The policy proved successful, and the authority continues to offer the service without charge to all residents in the borough. But the same cannot be said for other parts of Greater Manchester — a national hotspot for rat infestations. Looking across councils in the city-region, Bolton, Wigan, Manchester, and Salford all charge for some or all of pest control provision, limiting access for locals.
Poor sanitary conditions encourage rat populations, and this reflects problematic environmental health. From low quality sewage systems to mounting piles of garbage, something which has been a problem in Birmingham due to an ongoing strike impacting refuse collections. In turn, these factors contribute to the wider ecological emergency by adding to already-dangerous levels of pollution. But the climate crisis itself is also a contributing factor.
A 2025 paper published in the journal Science Advances points to rat populations soaring in a number of cities — including Washington DC, San Francisco, Toronto, New York City, and Amsterdam — due to rising temperatures. In some metropolitan areas, numbers have climbed almost 400% in a decade. Longer and warmer summers, shorter and milder winters, are helping sustain numbers and encourage breeding.
Meanwhile, incidents tied to climate change, such as flash flooding, flush vermin out of stereotypical urban dwellings, often forcing them to seek refuge in homes or places of work. Add to this major construction and redevelopment projects disturbing habitats, leading to a mass exodus of rodents into roads, parks and other street-level locations, and the Yorkshire giant no longer seems to be the biggest menace in this saga.
Image: Nikolett Emmert / Unsplash
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