Published on:
23
August 2011
Clackmannanshire Council has improved the ways it collects income, seeing the amount of money it is owed fall by nearly £1.5 million since last year.
While the national average rates of council tax collection have fallen over the past three years, Clackmannanshire's collection levels have continued to improve. In 2010/11, the Council collected 93.3% of council tax owed.
When it comes to non domestic rates (also known as business rates), Clackmannanshire is above the national average, with 96.89% collected in 2010/11. The Council has considerably improved its rates of collection for sundry debts - services such as music tuition, commercial refuse, home help and meals on wheels. In 2010/11, this was 94.99% - up from 79.56% in 2009/10.
Councillor McGill added, "This improvement is down to the proactive approach being taken by our revenues team, working with other services and the Sheriff Officer to contact customers and centralising and standardising the way we collect debt. I'm delighted at the progress, which should see the Council's debt continue to reduce.
"Unfortunately, there will always be some debts where, despite having made every effort to contact the debtor, we have not recovered the money. In some cases, it becomes more cost effective to write off the debt than to continue to pursue it. As our new approach sees more effective collection, I expect to see less and less debt written off."