Millions owed in unpaid council tax to Bath and North East Somerset Council

New figures show that Bath and North East Somerset council authority is owed nearly £5 million in unpaid council tax, The figure includes £2.1 million of arrears relating to 2017/18 that were still outstanding at the end of the financial year.

Bath and North East Somerset Council said this debt is still being recovered and has ‘no major impact’ on its budget. which has been racked up over previous years – and never recovered for the taxpayer.

The data was published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government meeting7. It shows a total of 98.1 per cent of the council tax due to for 2017/18 was collected during the financial year. The figures are higher than the national average, which stands at 97.1 per cent. Despite that, some £4.7 million remained outstanding at the end of March, from both 2017/18 and previous years.

A spokesman for Bath and North East Somerset Council said: “Our collection rates have been around 99 per cent for a decade. We have one of the lowest levels of council tax arrears in the country. The quoted figures cover a snapshot in time and a large proportion of this is fairly recent debt that is still being recovered so there is no major impact on the council’s budget.”

Across England, councils have £3 billion of council tax arrears – including £944 million from the financial year 2017/18.

Salford had the lowest council tax collection rate in 2017/18, at 90.0 per cent, followed by Blackpool (91.3 per cent). Wokingham in Berkshire had the highest, at 99.5 per cent.

Source: Somerset live