45 East of England councils must step up efforts to collect the £201.1m uncollected Council Tax and business rates
Peterborough tops east of England league for uncollected council tax and business rates in 2020/21 as total for 45 east of England councils amounts to £201.1m uncollected, new GMB study shows.
The 45 East of England councils must step up efforts to collect the £201.1m uncollected Council Tax and business rates and use it to fund the services the public depends on says GMB London.
Peterborough Council tops the East of England league with Council Tax and business rates in 2020/21 totalling £14.6m not collected. It is followed by Luton Council with Council Tax and business rates totalling £12.4m uncollected. It was followed in the top five in the uncollected tax league by Central Bedfordshire UA with £8.5m uncollected, Tendring with £8.18m uncollected, and Norwich with £7.26m uncollected.
Next in the East of England councils uncollected tax league were Basildon £6.6m, Epping Forest £6.2, Chelmsford £6.4m, Dacorum £6.2m and East Suffolk £5.8m. Set out in the table below are the figures for all 45 East of England councils - with three columns: uncollected Council Tax, uncollected business rates and the total amount of uncollected tax- ranked by the total amount of uncollected tax.
For the 45 East of England councils, the total amount of uncollected Council Tax and business rates was a staggering £201.1m. This was comprised of £131.6m uncollected Council Tax and £69.5m uncollected business rates. For England as a whole the total amount of uncollected Council Tax and business rates was £2,540.7m.
These figures are from a new study by GMB London of official figures on uncollected Council Tax and business rates. The link to the source data is in notes to editors below.
Uncollected Council Tax and business rates by East of England council
|
rank |
uncollected Council Taxes 2020-21 (£)* |
uncollected non-domestic rates 2020-21 (£)** |
total uncollected amount (£) |
|
|
Eastern |
131,617,000 |
69,505,000 |
201,122,000 |
|
|
1 |
Peterborough |
4,872,000 |
9,742,000 |
14,614,000 |
|
2 |
Luton |
9,068,000 |
3,354,000 |
12,422,000 |
|
3 |
Central Bedfordshire UA |
6,466,000 |
2,064,000 |
8,530,000 |
|
4 |
Tendring |
6,620,000 |
1,569,000 |
8,189,000 |
|
5 |
Norwich |
4,589,000 |
2,676,000 |
7,265,000 |
|
6 |
Basildon |
4,856,000 |
1,797,000 |
6,653,000 |
|
7 |
Epping Forest |
4,601,000 |
1,928,000 |
6,529,000 |
|
8 |
Chelmsford |
4,219,000 |
2,211,000 |
6,430,000 |
|
9 |
Dacorum |
3,388,000 |
2,871,000 |
6,259,000 |
|
10 |
East Suffolk |
3,882,000 |
1,934,000 |
5,816,000 |
|
11 |
Harlow |
3,780,000 |
1,998,000 |
5,778,000 |
|
12 |
Colchester |
2,532,000 |
3,196,000 |
5,728,000 |
|
13 |
Welwyn Hatfield |
3,894,000 |
1,719,000 |
5,613,000 |
|
14 |
Ipswich |
3,729,000 |
1,795,000 |
5,524,000 |
|
15 |
Southend-on-Sea |
3,392,000 |
1,940,000 |
5,332,000 |
|
16 |
Bedford |
3,786,000 |
1,093,000 |
4,879,000 |
|
17 |
Braintree |
3,283,000 |
1,132,000 |
4,415,000 |
|
18 |
Great Yarmouth |
2,878,000 |
1,419,000 |
4,297,000 |
|
19 |
Thurrock |
1,683,000 |
2,511,000 |
4,194,000 |
|
20 |
Watford |
2,208,000 |
1,889,000 |
4,097,000 |
|
21 |
East Hertfordshire |
3,294,000 |
778,000 |
4,072,000 |
|
22 |
West Suffolk |
3,061,000 |
958,000 |
4,019,000 |
|
23 |
Uttlesford |
1,457,000 |
2,466,000 |
3,923,000 |
|
24 |
Cambridge |
2,715,000 |
1,085,000 |
3,800,000 |
|
25 |
North Hertfordshire |
2,427,000 |
1,082,000 |
3,509,000 |
|
26 |
Huntingdonshire |
2,551,000 |
931,000 |
3,482,000 |
|
27 |
Kings Lynn and West Norfolk |
2,716,000 |
665,000 |
3,381,000 |
|
28 |
Three Rivers |
1,616,000 |
1,522,000 |
3,138,000 |
|
29 |
Hertsmere |
1,759,000 |
1,343,000 |
3,102,000 |
|
30 |
Breckland |
2,221,000 |
768,000 |
2,989,000 |
|
31 |
Broxbourne |
2,111,000 |
712,000 |
2,823,000 |
|
32 |
Stevenage |
2,471,000 |
294,000 |
2,765,000 |
|
33 |
Brentwood |
1,820,000 |
936,000 |
2,756,000 |
|
34 |
Mid Suffolk |
1,469,000 |
1,111,000 |
2,580,000 |
|
35 |
South Cambridgeshire |
1,159,000 |
1,420,000 |
2,579,000 |
|
36 |
Castle Point |
2,206,000 |
265,000 |
2,471,000 |
|
37 |
Fenland |
1,931,000 |
500,000 |
2,431,000 |
|
38 |
South Norfolk |
1,772,000 |
559,000 |
2,331,000 |
|
39 |
Maldon |
1,623,000 |
571,000 |
2,194,000 |
|
40 |
St Albans |
1,431,000 |
723,000 |
2,154,000 |
|
41 |
Babergh |
1,426,000 |
417,000 |
1,843,000 |
|
42 |
North Norfolk |
1,532,000 |
204,000 |
1,736,000 |
|
43 |
Broadland |
1,052,000 |
592,000 |
1,644,000 |
|
44 |
East Cambridgeshire |
1,065,000 |
513,000 |
1,578,000 |
|
45 |
Rochford |
1,006,000 |
252,000 |
1,258,000 |
|
131,617,000 |
69,505,000 |
201,122,000 |
||
|
* Calculated by subtracting 'amount of Council Tax collected' from 'estimated amount collectable' |
||||
|
** Calculated by subtracting 'amount of non-domestic rates collected' from 'estimated amount collectable' |
||||
Warren Kenny, GMB London Regional Secretary said:
“The 45 East of England councils must step up efforts to collect the £201m uncollected Council Tax and business rates and use it to fund the services the public depends on.
“Councils should have robust systems in place to deal with households and businesses that fail to pay. There can be no excuses for not trying to pick up all the money owed to the council.
“It should be noted that during the pandemic smaller businesses were exempt from paying business rates or were part of rebate schemes when closed. Councils should seek to enter into agreements with other businesses that were unable to pay to recover any unpaid rates in future years as business recovers to normal.
“This £201m in the East of England would be a great help for councils to pay for services and pay rises into the pockets of staff whose pay hasn’t kept up with inflation in previous years and who are now dealing with rising food, energy, fuel costs, and from April a National Insurance increase.”
End
Contact:
Tony Warr, GMB London Region Senior Officer 0771063 1336
Vaughan West, GMB London Region Organiser/Political Officer 079 6734 2197
Notes to editors
Link to source data:
