Council set to write off £1.25m of bad debts

The proposed amount to be written off makes up a tiny proportion of debts recovered by the council

A cash-strapped council has been recommended to write off £1.25m of "irrecoverable" debts.

Peterborough City Council said that much of the figure came from unpaid business rates, council tax and overpayments of housing benefit.

The write off makes up a tiny proportion - less than 0.04% - of debts recovered by the council since 2011.

The authority has recommended that the cabinet agrees to relieve the debts when it meets on Tuesday.

'Persistent recovery activity'

A council can find it difficult to recover money it is owed if a company goes into liquidation, or an individual has been made bankrupt.

In other incidences, a debtor can die without enough money in their estate or the council is simply unable to trace them.

In its report, the council said that thanks to "persistent recovery activity", it had been recovering debts which amounted to millions of pounds a year.

The council has been looking at ways to bring down its own debt, which amounts to about £460m, and has been looking at ways to bring in extra income, including selling off some of its assets.

A decision is also due on Tuesday for a recommendation to gradually close a group supporting manufacturing firms in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Smart Manufacturing Alliance was set up in 2021 with £715,000 initial investment but failed to build up enough income to cover its costs.