Black Country councils use enforcement officers to collect £21m debt

From 2015 six local authorities used debt collectors on 161,471 occasions, with council tax arrears accounting for around 65 percent of cases. The association that represents local authorities said they had a duty to collect taxes in order to protect vital services.

A Freedom of Information request provided figures for the four Black Country councils, Lichfield District Council and South Staffordshire District Council showed that Walsall Council used bailiffs 48,733 times from April 2015 to December 2017, the figures showed, bringing in a total of £5.97m.

Council tax accounted for 73 percent of cases, while bailiffs were also sent out to collect arrears from parking fines and business rates. Sandwell Council sent out debt collectors on 40,716 occasions over the same period, although the authority did not reveal how much money it had brought in. Dudley Council sent out bailiffs 30,688 times to collect £7.4m.

Wolverhampton Council, used bailiffs on 34,620 to recover £4m worth of debts. Lichfield District Council used bailiffs 2,903 times to collect £2.1m, and South Staffordshire District Council brought in £1.46m from 3,811 bailiff visits.