Camden Council’s offices in King’s Cross

A SERVICE aimed at tackling the root causes of repetitive hoarding has been launched after decluttering demand and costs doubled in the last six years.

Health chiefs said there had been a dramatic increase in hoarding cases, and deep-cleans had been costing the Town Hall more than £1.3million a year.

One single home had 21 deep-cleans since 2020 while another resident had got in such a “panic” about a coming clearance that they had set a bonfire inside their flat.

Ten residents have already entered into a new year-long “person-centred” outsourced programme that aims to prevent the process of decluttering from becoming “traumatising” and includes therapy and getting the family involved.

Michelle Head, director of adult social care at the council, told a meeting of the health scrutiny committee: “Hoarding is recognised as a form of self-neglect under the Care Act and can have serious consequences for individual and their neighbours. They are often shaped by trauma and mental ill health, physical decline and isolation.”

She said hoarding often led to “shame” and “withdrawal from loved ones” and also created barriers for accessing support, adding: “The issue is really not just about the money. It is about the outcomes for the individuals and the way repetitive deep-cleans and decluttering have happened, but we haven’t influenced their wellbeing at all. We have just continued the same interventions. We have been determined to break that cycle.”

Scrutiny meeting chair Larraine Revah referred to the overly officious letters that are sent to tenants about hoarding.

And Cllr Steve Adams spoke about the “panic” at the prospect of a deep-clean and how a tenant had “decided to help everybody by having a bonfire in the flat” ahead of the clean.

The meeting heard of a recent investigation by the council that included cluttered living conditions leading to a significant fire risk.

The report to the committee said that a professional musician whose flat became severely neglected – making it impossible for her to use her kitchen or bathroom – had already been helped by the new service that began last month.

At the meeting, Cllr Judy Dixey said: “I am concerned about how people will be found. How are we going to find people and help them?”

She added: “It’s great to hear concerned neighbours can follow up, but we haven’t got many who are going to be inquisitive neighbours.”

Research suggests that only around 5 per cent of people with hoarding behaviour are known to adult social care services.

Health chief Cllr Anna Wright said: “It is not the case that everyone who is hoarding is known to adult social care. There will be those that are going out to work, and living a normal life. It’s a complicated issue. We are not going to find everyone. But we can be confident we have a much better system for picking up those cases and getting to the root causes.”

She added: “Now we have the contractors to do the cleaning who are specialist and know how to manage the situation and about the therapeutic support as well.”

The new provider contracted by the council is Mosaic.