By MICHAEL BLACKLEY FOR THE SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL

Published: 00:10 GMT, 29 December 2025 | Updated: 00:19 GMT, 29 December 2025

Nearly 20,000 complaints were made about rats to Scotland’s councils last year, with a growing funding squeeze blamed for rising numbers of sightings.

The number of rat reports has skyrocketed in recent years, with incidences more than a third up on 2020/21.

A total of 19,752 complaints were made about the pests in 2024/25 – an average of 54 a day – with more than half of these in Glasgow.

It comes at a time when spending on street cleaning has been reduced amid growing financial strain on local authorities.

Scottish Labour local government spokesman Mark Griffin said: ‘Glasgow is a world-class city but we can all see how badly it is being let down by the SNP... leaving us with litter on the streets and rats running riot.’

Data obtained by Scottish Labour from 26 of Scotland’s 32 councils shows there were 19,752 complaints about rats in 2024/25, 12.7 per cent higher than 17,528 in 2023/24.

In Glasgow alone, there were 10,840 rat complaints last year, 19.6 per cent higher than 9,066 in 2023/24 and 50.2 per cent higher than 7,215 in 2020/21.

Trade unions have been warning for several years of a growing problem with the rodents in Glasgow – although SNP council leader Susan Aitken claimed there was just ‘greater visibility’ and not an increasing health problem.

Nearly 20,000 complaints about rats were made to Scottish councils last year

Bin workers have been filmed fleeing massive rats in Glasgow - in 2021 Scotland's largest city was declared rat capital of the country

Labour highlighted official data that showed council expenditure on street cleaning has fallen from £150.1million in 2010/11 to £98.3million in 2024/25.

The proportion of adults who were satisfied with street cleaning also fell to 58 per cent across Scotland and 37 per cent in Glasgow – the lowest scores since 2013/14.

But local authority chiefs insist that there is no correlation between street cleaning figures and reports of rats in private properties.

Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee said: ‘Funding for council-run waste services is a matter for local authorities, not the Scottish Government.’

In 2021, Glasgow was dubbed the rat capital of Scotland when research estimated that the total rat population in the city had soared to 1.3million.

Council refuse workers in the city have reported being attacked and bitten, with some requiring hospital treatment.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: ‘Rats can unfortunately be a fact of life in an urban environment. Thankfully the vast majority of Glasgow’s 300,000-plus homes will be completely unaffected by rodents at any one time because appropriate environmental controls are already in place.’