Wakefield Council writes off more than £300,000 worth of council tax debt in one year

The local authority's statement of accounts showed it had given up on collecting £312,000 it was owed between April 2019 and March 2020.

The council said it did not "write debts off readily", but said there were cases where it was simply not able to collect tax, or that some individuals were unable to pay.

It follows a 2018 report which showed that the local authority had sent out 100,000 court summons over a five year period to chase up council tax that was due.

In response to last year's figures Neil Warren, the council's chief finance officer, said: "We take council tax collection very seriously but also recognise that for various reasons some people may struggle to pay and therefore we do help people to make affordable payments.

"There are cases, however, where we are not able to collect council tax.

"We do not write debts off readily - each case will be carefully reviewed and all options for recovering debts will be considered.

"We are aware that people’s circumstances may change and just because they’ve not made payments on time doesn’t mean they can’t do so in the future.

"If we become aware of new information regarding debts previously written off, we will consider recommencing recovery proceedings.

“We do urge anyone that is concerned about paying their council tax to contact us immediately by calling 0345 8 504 504 to see how we can help.”

Local Democracy Reporting Service