Council to write off developer debt of £460k

Rotherham Council said it tried to recover the debt without success

A long-standing debt of more than £460,000 owed to a council by a developer is to be written off.

The amount stems from a regeneration scheme from 2013 called the Westgate Demonstrator Project, an initiative led by Rotherham Council in partnership with Iliad (Rotherham) Ltd.

Iliad failed to pay a lease premium of £466,360.22 to the authority after getting into financial difficulty and going into liquidation, according to council documents.

The council said it had tried to collect the debt through the usual methods but had not been successful.

A council spokesperson said: “The council has pursued this debt through a variety of channels over a significant period of time, however, it is now believed that all avenues have been exhausted and the debt should be written off."

The project aimed to "revitalise" Westgate with new buildings and infrastructure, including a mix of residential, commercial, and leisure spaces.

The agreement was that Iliad enter into a long-term lease with the council and pay it once the buildings were completed, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“Provision has previously been made in the council’s accounts for the potential that this would need to be written off,” Rotherham Council added.

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