The Argus: Counting the cost of council tax dodgers

Council tax dodgers cost each household an extra £30 in bills last year.

More than £3 million of council tax was left uncollected in Brighton and Hove in the year ending April 2007, new figures reveal. And with 115,000 households across the city, each home had to contribute an average of £30 to make up for the shortfall.

The lost £3.3 million was up on the previous 12 months and placed Brighton and Hove as one of the most wasteful councils in the South East.
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But the city council dismissed the comparison as "more than meaningless".

The money could have paid for four restorations of Brighton's Birdcage bandstand, which has lain derelict for decades, or paid for 150 extra binmen.

Across Sussex more than £17 million was left uncollected, including £659,000 by Lewes District Council and £111,000 by Adur District Council, though both councils recorded a fall in the amount lost and were in the top 20 most improved authorities in the South East.

Brighton and Hove saw the total uncollected tax increase from £3,215,000 to £3,251,000. Only Milton Keynes, Southampton and Portsmouth had more council tax dodgers.

A spokesman for the city council said: "Comparisons with nearby councils with vastly differing budgets are worse than meaningless.

"As a proportion of the total amount of council tax due our collection performance has actually improved over the period referred to. We collected 96.6 per cent in 2005-06 which went up to 96.8 per cent in 2006-07.

"Also our performance is ranked as fifth best out of 16 authorities classified by the Government as our "nearest statistical neighbours" - those authorities most like us in terms of size, responsibilities and local circumstances.

"The GMB analysis takes no account of the total amount of council tax collectable, which goes up every year and will vary depending on the size of authority. We remain focused on improving collection rates and committed to pursuing non-payment of council tax."

The overall amount for the country was £760 million, according to the GMB union who published the figures.

Ted Purcell, GMB senior organiser, said: "GMB has been criticised in recent years for publicising the inefficiency of council tax collection but I make no apologies for that. With over £760 million uncollected council tax nationally in the last year alone and more than half of councils getting worse at it, this is a serious issue."

Blair Gibbs, of The TaxPayers' Alliance, said councils should spend more time chasing tax evaders and less time taking pensioners to court.

He said: "We do not condone tax evasion.

It is law-abiding council tax payers who end up paying more the next year in increased tax bills. But the council tax system is the most unpopular tax and people are very disappointed with what they get for it.

"Councils should do more to clamp down on evaders. If they were better at collecting council tax and didn't waste so much of our money people would be more likely to support council tax."