Crap Towns / Bedfordshire / Luton
Luton
66/100Crap Score
Known as Costa del 'Ton.
336th crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest in Bedfordshire. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Best view's from the plane
Luton's airport calls itself London. Locals say the best view of Luton is from the plane.
Luton made hats, then cars, and now it's mainly an airport that pretends it's in London. The town centre's tired and a library's gone. Wardown Park is lovely, and Kenilworth Road is a proper ground, where the away fans get in through a gap in a row of terraced houses. Everyone else is on a plane.
The council logged 11,599 fly-tips in a year, more than four times the typical English council's rate, and most of it was on the council's own land. It recycles about a quarter of household waste. The rest, by the look of it, goes on the pavement. The kitchens are a gamble, and there's hardly a public loo in the town, which is bad news after one of them.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Luton's 97 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Fly-tipping97/10046.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Luton council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene94/1006.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,111 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution87/10011.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions69/1002.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour47/10014.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson42/1006.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires40/1005.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain29/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills8/1003.2 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband3/1002.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 1.9% across the Luton council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luton | 66 |
| 2 | Bedford | 61 |
| 3 | Houghton Regis | 60 |
| 4 | Dunstable | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Kempston | 27 |
| 6 | Sandy | 17 |
| 7 | Leighton Buzzard | 13 |
| 8 | Stotfold | 10 |
| 9 | Flitwick | 4 |
| 10 | Biggleswade | 2 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Luton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 84.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 11% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 659 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 28.2 per 10,000 people, 8.3x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 53 pubs, 121 hairdressers, 20 charity shops, 27 bookmakers, 5 vape shops, 13 banks, 7 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (13 of 182) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 0.9 per 100,000 people, 74% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Wigmore (2014)
- 13 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 63% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 9 public swimming pools open; 6 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.04am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 23.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.5x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,563 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Luton council
Have a crap-off
Luton against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.