£147m council tax 'failure'

It may impact on council budgets

A public spending watchdog has called on local authorities to do more to collect outstanding council tax.

The call followed publication of a report from Audit Scotland which revealed that councils are still owed £147m in unpaid bills from the year 1999/2000.

The report found that Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire councils had the worst collection records, bringing in only 80% of the money they were owed last year.

However, the Citizens Advice Bureau says that councils should listen more carefully to people's difficulties and avoid "threatening" collection procedures.

Five worst

Glasgow - 78.9%

West Dunb'shire - 80.4%

Inverclyde - 81.3%

E. Ayrshire - 83.2%

N. Ayrshire - 85.2%

The report showed Scottish councils collected only 88% of the £1.26bn due in Scotland compared with 96% of the total south of the border.

Audit Scotland, which carried out the report, found that Glasgow had the worst collection rates, bringing in only 78.9% of its council tax.

The best result came in Orkney which managed to collect 96.3% of the total, followed by Borders Council with 95.7%.

A total of five councils collected less than in 1998/1999, including Fife and Aberdeenshire which saw collection levels drop by more than 1%.

The remaining 27 councils all improved their records while Inverclyde and West Lothian collected over 4% more than in the previous year.

According to the report the variation in collection is due in part to social deprivation and population density.

'Lagging behind'

However, it says that other factors, such as the accuracy of records and the speed with which recovery action is undertaken are within their powers.

Audit Scotland's director of performance audit Lesley Bloom welcomed the small improvement in collection of 1% over the previous year's figures.

But she said Scottish councils were still "lagging behind" their English counterparts.

Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland she said: "Scottish councils are still addressing the legacy of the campaign against the community charge some years ago.

Lesley Bloom, Audit Scotland

Ms Bloom said the non-payment campaign, particularly in the west of Scotland, had "disrupted" the good payment habits shown by Scots in the past.

She added: "The issue that the Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland are concerned about is why some authorities are doing better at improving than others."

She said councils had to do more to increase the uptake of direct debit payments and take quicker action to deal with arrears.

But Jim Melvine, manager at Coatbridge Citzens Advice Bureau in Lanarkshire, warned against treating people too harshly.

He said: "Our everyday experience in bureaux is that we are not faced with huge numbers of people who don't want to pay the tax.

"What we are faced with is huge numbers of people who are just simply not able to pay the tax at the time it is demanded from them."

'Threatening approach'

Mr Melvine said that "conditions of poverty, debt and difficulty" were the real reasons why people did not pay their council tax on time.

"I think that some of the problem here is caused by the means by which local authorities seek to collect the debt.

"I think that local authorities in some respect are very remote from the people who are paying the debt.

"Instead of trying to listen very carefully to their difficulties and to help them with making payments as best they can, some local authorities take an approach which really is threatening."

Five best

Orkney - 96.3%

Borders - 95.7%

Shetland - 94.5%

Stirling - 93.7%

Angus - 93.6%

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "It is vital that local authorities have effective arrangements to collect local taxes if they are to provide the services that people deserve.

"The Accounts Commission report confirms that council collection rates are at their highest level since reorganisation, but they must get better.

"We are working with local government and other relevant organisations to assist and encourage councils to improve their council tax collection levels and efficiency.

"Legislative changes were introduced last year to allow authorities to start collecting council tax one month earlier and to start recovery procedures sooner.

"Those people that can pay should pay. However we have established a working group including organisations like the Poverty Alliance and Money Advice Scotland to look at ways of offering people more convenient payments methods - such as payment cards - and to ensure that people receive early and sympathetic advice when they need it."