Writes off £170,000 council tax and business rates debt
DEBTS TO LOCAL AUTHORITY FROM ONE INDIVIDUAL AND TWO COMPANIES
NORTH East Lincolnshire Council has written off more than £170,000 in council tax and business rates debts owed to it.
The debts are from three cases - one individual and two companies. Cases where more than £50,000 debt are to be written off require cabinet approval, and these were agreed earlier in March. The writeoff of such debts is not unusual practice.
Local authorities are expected to follow prudent accounting methods in writing off debts deemed unlikely to ever be retrieved. One individual owed almost £60,000 in council tax. But they were declared bankrupt in June 2022 and it has been judged there is no reasonable prospect of recovery of the debt.
Chill Fresh Limited owed the council £63,000 in business rates. Compulsory strike action was started and discontinued against it in 2018. The following year, it was wound up by a court order, after a petition by another company. It was dissolved through winding up proceedings in March 2022. The other business rates debt being written off is £54,000. This stems from a liability dispute over several commercial properties between 1999 and 2014, between the council and Alverston Ltd. The council report states communication between the council and company has been ongoing for many years. This has concluded with leases being produced showing that another company, not Alverston Ltd, was liable for business rates during the 1999-2014 time period. By law, it is now too late for the council to bill the actual liable party, as too much time has expired for the council to be viewed as billing them as soon as practicable. The debts will remain in the council’s records.