Issued:17 October 2001
Best Value Review Highlights Success
Angus Council has undertaken a Best Value Review on community charge collection.
The study examined all areas of community charge collection procedures and has highlighted the Council’s success in ensuring payment.
The main findings of the study are:
- The council inherited a legacy of community charge debt at local government reform which amounted to £6.085 million.
- The council has collected £3.012 million (49.5%) in the period from 1 April 1996 to 31 March 2001. During this period a sum of £1.789 million (29.4%) has been written off as uncollectable.
- The total debt outstanding at 31 March 2001 is £1.284 million (21.1%) and payment arrangements are in place to collect a further £868,000 (14.3%).
- A benchmarking exercise with other councils highlighted Angus Council’s current collection levels to be higher than other comparative councils.
Finance Convener Alex King said: "The results of this review are yet another demonstration of the Council’s commitment to maximising local tax collection. Much of the tax which is still uncollected will be collected in later years and the arrangements which have been put in place have regard to the difficulties experienced by people on low incomes.
"Once again Angus has demonstrated its sensitive commitment to collecting taxes whilst keeping collection costs at a low level.
"It is important to recognise that the council has a statutory duty to collect community charge and do not have the option of withdrawing services in the event of non-payment.
"The high collection levels which the council enjoys are contributing to the maintenance of good services in Angus in the face of an ever-decreasing central government grant for discretionary services."