Households in Labour areas must pick up tab for others’ unpaid tax

HOUSEHOLDERS are having to pay higher council tax in Labourcontrolled areas because up to one in 10 bills is allowed to go unpaid, figures have revealed. In the worst-hit areas, Labour councils have unpaid council tax bills of up to £100m, the equivalent of £439 for every household.

It means that people who do pay their bills are being forced to subsidise those who do not, as councils have to increase council tax across the board to make up for the shortfall.

The 10 local authorities with the worst council tax collection rates in England are all Labour-run, as are the 10 councils with the biggest cumulative council tax arrears.

In Salford, Greater Manchester, one pound in every 10 went uncollected in 2017-18, contributing to a total council tax arrears of £46m, or £396 per household.

Labour-run Liverpool, where more than five per cent of council tax went uncollected, has the biggest total arrears in England, £99.8million.

The highest collection rates in the country are in Conservative-run Wokingham, Berkshire, where 99.5 per cent of council tax is paid in full.

The council with the smallest arrears is Tory-controlled South Cambridgeshire, with just £20 per household.

Across the whole of England, £3 billion in council tax remains unpaid, enough to fill 74 million potholes.

In the 2019-20 budget, Salford council cut £13m from its budget, blaming “government-imposed austerity”, even though more than three times that amount was owed in council taxes which were still deemed to be recoverable. The Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett said that “in the absence of additional funding, councils are forced to prop up services with council tax increases”.

In Liverpool, the mayor, Joe Anderson, has called for a “loosening of the Whitehall purse strings”, despite the £99m the city has failed to collect.

James Brokenshire, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said Labour complaints about government cuts are being used to mask the effect on tax bills caused by their own inefficiency.

He said: “Every penny of council tax that fails to be collected means higher council tax bills for the law-abiding taxpayers who pay on time.”

Labour-controlled councils currently charge an average of £93 more per year for a Band D home than Conservative councils.

The overall collection rate for Labour councils was 95.9 per cent, with an average arrears of £167 per household, while the average Conservative collection rate was 98.1 per cent, an average arrears of £75 per household.