Official figures reveal ‘room to improve’ Council Tax collection
3 Jul 2014 04:39 PM
Council Tax collection
rates remain high but councils failed to collect £2.5 billion of Council
Tax last year.
As overall Council Tax
collection rates remain high, new official
figures also reveal that town halls failed to collect £2.5
billion of Council Tax last year.
Welcoming the overall results,
ministers said the new figures also showed that some councils still had scope
to step up their efforts against Council Tax dodgers in order to safeguard
services and keep Council Tax down for law-abiding citizens who pay their
bills.
Overall collection rates
remained roughly the same with 97% of Council Tax recouped by local authorities
last year, compared to 97.4% in 2012 to 2013.
The government has worked with
local authorities to reduce Council Tax. Since 2010, this has cut average bills
in England by more than 11% in real-terms. In contrast the period between 1997
and 2010 saw Council Tax increase in real-terms by 47%, doubling a typical band
D bill to £120 a month.
While the total amount of
Council Tax collected rose by £1 billion, this reflects the
government’s progress in building more homes and bringing empty houses
into use, therefore increasing the number of households that councils can
collect from.
Local Government Minister
Brandon Lewis said:
It is good that councils collect
the vast majority of taxes owed, but as our record of an 11% real-terms
reduction shows we are determined to keep Council Tax down for law-abiding
citizens.
Today’s official figures
show some of the worst performing councils still have lots of room to improve
to help retrieve the billions left uncollected each year.
Every penny not collected has to
be found elsewhere. This is unfair to those law-abiding citizens who diligently
pay their bills.
Further
information
The total amount of collectable
Council Tax in England was 22.98 billion in 2012 to 2013 was and £24.1
billion in 2013 to 2014.
Council Tax collection rates
have fallen by 0.4% year-on-year from 97.4% to 97%.
The official statistics: Collection rates for
Council tax and non-domestic rates in England 2013 to 2014 were
published today (3 July 2014).
The government has changed the
rules so council taxpayers can ask to pay their bills online of spread over 12
months instead of the default of 10. Our measures give taxpayers more room for
managing their household budgets.
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