By Kerry Ashdown

Copyright expressandstar

A council tax debt of £11,441.76 and two business rates arrears totalling £34,673.43 were brought to the borough council’s cabinet for write-off on Monday (September 29).

Councillor Ralph Cooke, cabinet member for resources, said: “Regrettably, not all monies owed to the council can be collected, despite our best endeavours. The cost of collecting the debts has been considered as part of the decision to put these forward for write off.”

Cabinet members were also given an update on the authority’s progress in collecting council tax and business rates, as well as recovering housing benefit overpayments, between April and June this year. A report to the cabinet said: “Council tax is collected on behalf of the borough council, parish councils and our major preceptors (Staffordshire County Council and Commissioner for Police, Crime, Fire and Rescue).

“The effect of the collection fund arrangements means that Stafford Borough Council retains around 10% of the council tax collected. Council Tax due for the current year amounted to £111.8m and we have collected 28.6% of this up to the end of quarter one (April to June).

“The collection rate for the same period last year was 28.7%. The team will be increasing our efforts to collect older council tax debts due to the Council and this may impact some residents’ ability to pay current charges.

“Business rates due for the current year amount to £59.6m, of which 28.9% was collected by the 30 June. This is a small decrease on last year’s collection (of) 31.2%

“Repeating last year’s performance in the coming year will be challenging as many retail, hospitality and leisure establishments are facing increased bills as the government relief to these premises has reduced from 75% last year to 40% this year. Additionally a number of new and increased rating assessments since the start of the financial year have increased the amount that we have to collect by another £12m (2%).”

“Recovery of overpaid Housing Benefit continues to progress well, with some £92.2K being collected in the first quarter of this financial year.”