Council writes off £160,000 in bad debt

The amount of debt written off by Tamworth Borough Council was lower than the previous year

A council has cut the amount of debt it could not recover by more than a quarter in a year.

Tamworth Borough Council has had to write off £160,000 of bad debt from the 2023-24 financial year, compared to £220,000 in the previous period.

A report to councillors noted the money lost in unrecovered business rates fell from £92,000 to £26,000.

Council leader Carol Dean said: "It does show this is going in the right direction for a lot of the areas."

Examples of write-offs include:

• council tax - £9,053.69

• business rates - £26,177.07

• housing benefit overpayments - £22,532.32

• housing - £72,198.69

Individual debts of more than £10,000 can only be written off with the approval of the council's cabinet.

The report noted: "The Council views such cases very much as exceptions.

"Before writing off debt, the Council will satisfy itself that all reasonable steps have been taken to collect it and that no further recovery action is possible or practicable."