Member Article

Council unable to collect debts

Civic chiefs in Hartlepool are to write off business rates debt worth more than £360,000 after it was said to be “irrecoverable”.

Finance officers at Hartlepool Borough Council say they make every effort to collect cash owed, but they struggle to claw back certain debts once a firm goes bankrupt or into administration.

Options available to the council to recover the outstanding debt are limited to submitting a claim in insolvency proceedings.

However, because that process is rarely successful council chiefs have written the debt out of the accounting system.

Mike Ward, the council’s chief financial officer, said: “The business rates debt is significantly larger than council tax debt.

“In terms of the total collectable debt, the amount written out each year by the council equates to 0.2%, but there are no national benchmark figures.

“It is important to remember that this is a cost to the national pool and not the local council taxpayer.”

Town Mayor Stuart Drummond agreed to write-out debts to the value of £364,662.88 (including costs worth £1,632) at a finance and performance portfolio meeting.

The details of the individual business rates debts over £1,000 and the reasons why they haven’t been recovered were not released on confidentiality reasons.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .