Covid-hit Cannock Chase council's efforts to recover unpaid tax

Council leader Olivia Lyons said: "Collection has been hampered by the pandemic"

The coronavirus pandemic has hampered a council's efforts to recover unpaid taxes and forced it to write off debts of more than £120,000.

Cannock Chase District Council said it included £64,682 of unpaid business rates and £52,309 of council tax.

A cabinet report said because of the pandemic non-payers had been sent letters, encouraging them to seek help ahead of more formal warnings.

But it said reasonable and lawful efforts were made to recover the money.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the report listed five cases of unpaid business rates, 23 cases of council tax arrears and four unrecoverable Housing Benefit overpayments.

Ms Lyons, who presented the revenue collection report, said the four benefit overpayments were due to claimant error.

She said about 81% of council tax for the 2021-22 financial year had been collected by the end of December, along with 74.1% of business rates.

Cannock Chase District Council said it would do more to recover unpaid debts in the next financial year

The report added: "Council taxpayers have been encouraged to seek the help that is available to them, rather than the more formally worded notices that would ordinarily have been issued.

"Subject to our monitoring of the pandemic, we will increase our recovery action in the second half of this financial year."