Council writes off more than £2m of debt

More than £800,000 in unpaid council tax accounted for most of the unrecoverable debt

More than £2m in uncollected debt was written off by the City of Wolverhampton Council last year.

The total was revealed in a budget monitoring report presented to the council’s cabinet for approval at a recent meeting.

Unpaid council tax accounted for most of the the income classed as unrecoverable, with 1,450 council tax debts worth £823,330 written off in the financial year ending March 2024.

Councillor Louise Miles, cabinet member for resources, said debt write-off was "against rigorous criteria" and was "not done lightly".

The highest single council tax figure to be written off was £9,326, where the debtor could not be traced.

The next largest pot of missing income was non-domestic rates, also known as business rates, at a total of £610,600, with the biggest unpaid bill standing at more than £50,000.

The local authority has run out of time to take certain types of action to recover it.

The remainder of the debt came from unpaid council rent and debts where services were provided to individuals and businesses but money was not collected.

“Debts are only written off as a last resort, when all feasible recovery action has been exhausted," the report said.

“If the situation surrounding an individual case changes in the future, steps would be taken to pursue the debt, despite the debt having been written off.”

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.