Crap Towns / Greater London / Sutton
Sutton
58/100Crap Score
418th crappest of 984 towns, and 32nd in Greater London. 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
Nothing happens in Sutton. On purpose.
There was a palace at Nonsuch once. They knocked it down, and Sutton's been quiet ever since.
Sutton's the quiet end of south London and proud of it. No Tube, and a tram extension that's been promised so long people have stopped asking. Carshalton's got ponds and its own football team, which Sutton United fans call the Bobbins. Cheam has a village. It's all very nice and you'll be asleep before the news.
The buses run till 1.29am, in a borough with under half the typical town's pubs per head. God knows who's on them. For somewhere this sleepy the air's grim, with nitrogen dioxide at 1.6 times the typical town's, and the fly-tippers dump at nearly twice the typical council's rate. Suburban bliss.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Sutton's 94 for air pollution means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Air pollution94/10013.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 8.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping85/10020.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Sutton council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene78/1003.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,035 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions72/1003.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband50/1008.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 8.3% across the Sutton council area
- Anti-social behaviour48/10015.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson21/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires17/100
- Rain12/100115 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills6/1001.6 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | Barking and Dagenham | 77 |
| 26 | Kingston upon Thames | 73 |
| 27 | Havering | 72 |
| 28 | Richmond upon Thames | 68 |
| 29 | Harrow | 67 |
| 30 | Bexley | 66 |
| 31 | Merton | 60 |
| 32 | Sutton | 58 |
| 33 | Bromley | 55 |
Sutton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 63.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 17% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 199 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 9.5 per 10,000 people, 8.6x the typical town's 1.1
- 10 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 41 pubs, 86 hairdressers, 21 charity shops, 16 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 16 banks, 4 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 5.4% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (10 of 187) Worse: 35% higher than the typical town's 4.0%
- 4 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 1.9 per 100,000 people, 44% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Beddington Library (2016)
- 34 public toilets on the map (October 2026) About the same: 1.6 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 1.6
- 9 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 6 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.29am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 24.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,600 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Sutton council
Have a crap-off
Sutton 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.