Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
City council ‘worst for collecting council tax’
DUNDEE City Council fares worse at collecting people’s council tax than any other area in Scotland, an official report has said.
Audit Scotland published data showing the percentage of people who pay their council tax in all of the country’s local authority areas.
Figures in the report showed that 93.6% of council tax owed to the council had been paid last year (2015/16).
By comparison, the national average was 95.7% and neighbouring Perth and Kinross Council was the best with 98.5% of money collected. Now, a leading city councillor has written to the council’s finance director, Marjory Stewart, asking her to clarify the situation.
Kevin Keenan, leader of the Labour Group on the council, said if the figures were correct, the situation was cause for alarm.
In an email to Ms Stewart, he said: “The Audit Scotland Report is critical of Dundee City Council’s council tax rate, suggesting it’s one of the lowest in Scotland at 93%.
“Can you please advise the percentage figure that was used in setting the council tax and maybe give some detail and perhaps explain why there is a difference between that and Audit Scotland’s figure?”
He added: “Can you also advise if there has been any deterioration in collection that would give us cause for concern?
“In which case, if we were close to these Audit Scotland figures, that would be quite alarming.”
The council today said it would improve on the rate. A spokesman said: “We currently budget for a council tax collection rate of 96.7% and we are confident that this level will ultimately be achieved over time.
“The collection rate included in the Audit Scotland overview report is the level of in-year collection.
“We monitor council tax collection on a monthly basis and are targeting increasing the in-year collection rate year-on-year, while at the same time providing support and advice to people who are in financial difficulty.
“We also measure the longerterm collection rate, which shows that the council is recovering a higher level of council tax than our comparator councils and ultimately achieving our budgeted level of income.”
Audit Scotland’s Accounts Commission report said that councils had managed finances well but that significant challenges lay ahead.
The commission said that local authorities had remained within their overall budgets, increased their reserves slightly and reduced their debt during 2015/16.
It also showed that in the past six years, up to and including 2016/17, Scottish Government funding for councils had fallen by 8.4% in real terms. The report warned that further reductions were expected while demand on key services continued to rise.