£11.5 million debt owed to Aberdeen Council written off

Debt of more than £11.5 million owed to Aberdeen City Council has been written off. The debt relates to 5 years of debt which exact amount is of £11,593,956. The figure relates to uncollectable debt the council has decided not to pursue. It includes council tax, business rates, community charge, housing benefit overpayment and service income.

Willie Young, convener of finance, policy and resources, said the council had collected £1.5 billion pounds in council tax and business rates over the last five years. He said: “Aberdeen City Council’s policy has always been to chase debt whenever it is due and £2.5m of the £11.5m write off figure was written off by the Scottish Government following their decision to write off the Community Charge.”

The local authority recorded a council tax collection rate of 95.3% in 2015/2016, which is higher than Glasgow’s 94.7% but lower than Edinburgh’s 96.4%.

The percentage of council tax received at the end of the financial year this year was also 95.3%.

Young added: “I can assure the public that Aberdeen City Council always pursues debt owed right up until the point it is uneconomical to recover. It could be uneconomical to recover through a variety of reasons such as being unable to trace offenders, residents being deceased or sequestration orders being granted.”

Young said the council would continue to work with the public and businesses to collect tax due.