DEVON COUNCIL WRITES OFF £1M IN UNCOLLECTED COUNCIL TAX AND DEBTS

Nearly £1 million in uncollected council tax, business rates and debts has been written off by Teignbridge Council in the past two years.

In the last financial year, until April 2018, the council says it now has no hope of ever getting back £547,000.

It's a massive jump of £132,000 compared to the previous year when the Conservative run council wrote off a further £415,000.

Combined, the total loss over the two years is a whopping £962,000, say concerned Liberal Democrat councillors.

The debt write offs were disclosed as part of a 363 page report to the Teignbridge Executive committee, made up of Conservative councillors, who approved the end of year financial report, including the £547,000 from last year it now believes it will never be able to recover.

Cllr Alan Connett, Lib Dem for Kenton with Starcross ward, is astonished by the amount of money written off by Teignbridge.

He said" In the space of two years, Teignbridge has written off nearly £1million in Council Tax, Business Rates and other money it now thinks it will never get back. These figures were tucked away in one paragraph in a huge report of 363 pages.

"As a local councillor, representing many people who work hard to pay their way and meet the hikes in Council Tax every year, I would like to see some meaningful explanations of these losses, especially as they have jumped up so much from last year."

In 2017-18, Teignbridge Council wrote off £276,000 in uncollected Council Tax, a further £114,000 in Business Rates and £157,000 in general debts owed to the authority, totalling £547,000.

In the previous year, the council gave up on collecting £139,000 Council Tax, £90,000 Business Rates, and £186,000 in general debts, totalling £415,000.