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Councils urged to collect more tax
A new initiative has been launched by the government to help local authorities collect more council tax.
Local government minister Stephen Byers said he asked the Local government Association to help poorly-performing councils improve council tax collection rates.
English local authorities collected £11.89 billion in council taxes for 2000/01 by the end of March, representing 95.8 per cent of the £12.41 billion collectable. While this represents a small, 0.2 per cent, improvement on the previous financial year, it left £500 million of uncollected taxes.
"Overall, council tax collection had improved slightly and many councils are making a great effort. But half a billion pounds wasn't collected last year - that's money that could have been spent on local services. I've looked at the figures and I believe some councils could do a lot more to improve their collection performance. That's why I will be asking the worst collectors for an explanation of their bad performance," said Byers.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, LGA chairman, added: "Overall, councils have continued to improve their collection rates since the disastrous experiment with poll tax. It is clear some authorities face particular difficulties and we need to understand the reasons why."
Revised figures on 2000/01 council tax receipts were published, indicating that by the end of March the worst performing council, Hackney, had collected just 67.8 per cent of its taxes, followed by Lambeth on 82 per cent and Newham on just under 85 per cent.
In contrast, the best performing council, South Cambridgeshire, collected a near-perfect 99.7 per cent of its council taxes. In joint second place, Craven, Ribble Valley and Surrey Heath councils all collected 99.3 per cent.
The most improved borough was Southwark which improved collection rates from 80.2 per cent in 1999/2000 to 87.1 per cent in 200/01, a 6.9 per cent improvement. However, Erewash council was one of a number of councils that saw their collection rates decline. It's rate slipped from 93 per cent to 89.5 per cent in 2000/01, a 3.5 per cent fall.
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