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£4.4M owed in unpaid council tax

Michael Byrne
9/ 6/2006

AN investigation may be launched into why the council is owed £4.4M in unpaid council tax - equivalent to almost £70 on most council tax bills.

Cash owed to Rochdale Council from people not paying up doubled this year.

This is despite the council tax collection rate last year being 96.6 per cent, equal to the national average in the previous year and just 0.7 per cent less than Bury and Tameside, which were the highest in Greater Manchester.

The news comes at a time when the council's department managers are having to justify filling vacant posts to finance chief Margaret Carney as the cabinet tries to get to grips with the council's financial situation.

Councillors on the corporate overview and scrutiny committee may be asked to look into what is happening.

Committee chairman, Councillor Allen Brett, said: "Collection rates have slightly improved but there's still a lot of people not paying the council tax and don't want to pay.

"Perhaps it's something the committee should look into to find out why and look at ways of improving the collection rates. It's also sometimes very difficult to find people once they move out of the area."

The figure of £4.4M is equivalent of nearly £75 on council tax bills for Band A properties.

Conservative group leader Councillor Ashley Dearnley added: "The amount we are owed from this year will go down but it is still very disappointing.

"If we had all this money back in then perhaps we wouldn't have to increase council tax.

"Every effort should be made to collect the tax but it can be difficult to trace people who have left the borough."

Council leader Councillor Alan Taylor said: "While the council tax rate of collection is ahead of most councils in Greater Manchester, we must not be complacent.

"The budget is tight, which means the council has to be more effective in chasing overdue council tax.

"Anyone struggling to pay needs to get in touch with us and I am sure we can come to an arrangement to meet difficulties."

Simon Bailey, from the council, said: "We expect to collect 99.9 per cent of the outstanding tax from this year."


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Most recent 2 of 3 user comments

   the council tax is a unfair tax on the people who can less afford it,the tax should be on property privately owned,property thats not.lived in and huge property with ,one or two people.Stop taxing people,start taxing assets.
anthony o,connell, rochdale
15/06/2006 at 16:18
   Why are people not paying, it is not just in Rochdale it is right across the country. Council Tax is no longer affordable to the minority of country who pay it. Since its inception in 1993 the increases in council tax has more than doubled, in some areas of the country like the south and south west using pensioners as an example, for every pound rise in the basic state pension approximately 0.61P has been removed just to pay the increases in council tax. Taking it a stage further since 1993 the basic state pension has increased on average by just ??2.16 per week the increase demands made of councils and utility services such as electric, gas and water have taken all of this amount and more, and to keep afloat people on low and fixed incomes have had to make difficult decisions, some have paid by facing jail sentences. The council tax must be scrapped and replaced by a system based on the ability to pay and not what your property is worth/ In 1991 the then Minister of the Environment Michael Heseltine when announcing this new tax to replace the poll tax stated quote, "the new system would be fair, based on the ability to pay and be easy to collect" On all three counts it has failed. In the financial year 2004/5 unpaid council tax for England amounted to approx ??590 million, this year will see this figure escalate as Rochdale are finding out. If you want to do something about council tax join our campaign group we charge no membership fees, our aims are to remove this tax, we want to see this burden based on the ability to pay it, national income tax and VAT, to find out more visit our website www.isitfair.co.uk. Brian Jaye Isitfair Campaign Dorset Group
Brian Jaye, Dorset
11/06/2006 at 16:59
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