Unpaid tax bills leave authorities £10m short
Local authorities in the Black Country and Staffordshire are still chasing more than £10 million in unpaid council tax from last year, the Express & Star can reveal today.
Local authorities in the Black Country and Staffordshire are still chasing more than £10 million in unpaid council tax from last year, the Express & Star can reveal today.
Latest figures show despite claiming one of their best years for payment for services most councils are still at least £1m each down.
Wolverhampton City Council came top of the list for not getting paid with £3.3m outstanding by the end of the financial year. It comes as it emerged today the authority is battling a £5.3m funding gap, revealed in a budget report for the year ahead out for public consultation.
Some 95 per cent of the £76.2m due to the authority was paid in full, a rate that was today defended by leader, Tory Councillor Neville Patten.
He said: "I have been asking about this recently and wondered that maybe the recession was leading to people keeping their money, which I would never recommend they do because they should always pay.
"As far as I understand things, our collection rates are improving this year."
The Tory-Lib Dem alliance took control of the council from Labour in May last year. Sandwell Council is still chasing £1.7 m from its residents but was named third best in the country for collecting tax, receiving 97.9 per cent of the £81.2m it asked for. Finance chief, Councillor Steve Eling, said: "This is important revenue for payment of essential public services." Cannock Chase Council achieved its best ever collection rate in 2008-09 at 98.5 per cent. But even this left a total of £550,000 uncollected from a total of £35.986m.
Walsall Council collected £83.434m by the end of April, receiving 96.9 per cent of what was owed. There is £2.2m outstanding but Walsall was named fifth best nationally for its collection rate. Council leader Mike Bird said: "We are quite aggressive in our approach, but we are compassionate with those people with problems."
For 2008-9 Dudley Council collected £95.5m in council tax, with £1.7m outstanding, a collection rate of 98.35 per cent. Spokesman Chris Howes said: "It puts the authority in the top two metropolitan authorities in the country."
Lichfield District Council collected 98.6 per cent of its council tax before the end of the 2008-9 financial year and is still pursuing £1.1m. Stafford Borough Council collected £55.7m and bosses said they have since recouped more, but failed to reveal how much.
Fiona McEvoy, of the West Midlands TaxPayers' Alliance said: "The sad thing is a lot of this is down to people who are habitual non-payers and councils just won't do anything about them."
