Council tax debt on the rise (From Free Press Series)

Council tax debt on the rise

9:20am Saturday 31st July 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share

TORFAEN council was owed more than £760,000 in unpaid council tax at the end of the last financial year, while Monmouthshire had £2,124,000 unpaid.

The figure saw a rise of more than £300,000 in the area's council tax debt from the previous year, 2008/09, where the council had the lowest debt figure for Gwent at £460,921.68.

The figure at the end of 2009/10 was £769,862.15.

Across Gwent, councils were owed nearly £7 million in unpaid council tax.

Monmouthshire had the highest unpaid amount with £2,124,000 this year, which was up on the previous year’s £2,010,000.

Caerphilly saw the highest increase year on year rising from £788, 576 in 2008/09 to £1,624,712 this year, while Blaenau Gwent increased from £603,596 in 2008/09 to £870,000 this year.

Newport was the only council to report a decrease from the previous year dropping from £1,666,000 to £1,611,000 this year. Some of these included money outstanding from previous years.

The total figure for Gwent has risen by more than £1 million compared with the previous year’s debt, increasing from a total of £5,529,093 for the 2008/09 financial year to £6,999,574 in 2009/10.

Torfaen council leader, Cllr Bob Wellington said: “We have one of the best financial systems in place though and officers are constantly looking at ways to improve on collecting council tax in the area.”

Matthew Elliot, chief executive of the Tax Payers Alliance, said the total owed to Gwent authorities was a huge sum which could have serious implications for tax payers.

He said: “Council tax has skyrocketed in recent years, and a large chunk of the money that’s owed will simply reflect people's inability to pay, and in other cases it will be wilful breaking of the law. “Councils must do more to recover the money and ensure that law-abiding taxpayers do not have to pay more to make up for those who don’t pay."

• Print
• Email
• Share