Hunt down the tax defaulters

Aug 14 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

IT IS not too surprising that Liverpool City Council has sought to make the most of figures which show it was the most improved local authority in the region for collecting council tax in the last financial year.

True, the figures compiled by the GMB union show that council officials collected £937,000 more than they did the year before – however, that still leaves a whopping £4.9m outstanding from 2006 to 2007.

Wirral Council did even worse, coming in as the second-worst performing authority in the North West by failing to pick up £4m – an additional £1.3m lost compared to 2005/06.

Officials at both councils say they are committed to making sure as much tax as possible is collected.

This will come as little comfort to the majority of us who pay our council tax promptly and in full, and have seen inflation-busting rises year on year.

Much of that is down to the Government and its inadequate funding of local government, but it is fair to ask: how much are councils doing to help themselves, and the rest of us, by pursuing those who fail to pay this deeply unpopular tax?

If the huge amounts that are left uncollected every year are anything to go by, the answer must be not nearly enough.

It is only thanks to the GMB union that these figures, which show the problem has got worse collectively across the North West, have become available at all.

As the union’s senior organiser correctly points out, with over £760m uncollected council tax nationally in the last year alone and more than half of councils getting worse at it, this is a serious issue.

It is for this reason that councils have to make it more worthwhile for people to pay this tax, and far less worthwhile for them to dodge it.

The staggering amounts left unpaid can only serve to demoralise and dishearten those who do pay up regularly, month after month, year after year.