Council drops £2m tax bombshell on Monmouthshire residents

12.00.00am GMT Mon 23rd Jan 2006

Monmouthshire County Council is to write off nearly £2 million in money owed to the authority from the non payment of Council Tax, Business Rates and council housing rents, Monmouthshire Liberal Democrat councillors have discovered.

The level of arrears owed to the council now stands at approximately £3.2 million. The council is expected to 'write off' £1.7 million of that debt.

The shocking news for Monmouthshire Council Tax payers was revealed in the Annual Letter from the council's external auditors Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Wales Audit Office. The auditors report that, "The level of arrears in respect of council tax, housing rents and National non-Domestic Rates have increased during the year."

Council tax arrears has increased from £1.3 million at March 2004 to £1.8 million now; business rates non payment has increased from £679,000 to nearly £1 million and the backlog of housing rents from £323,000 to £448,000.

Leader of the Welsh Lib Dem group on Monmouthshire County Council, Phil Hobson said, "The soaring levels of money owed to Monmouthshire is being put down to the implementation of new computer software programmes to collect revenue.

"What we find incredible is that no one sees to have thought that this IT work would mean that arrears were not going to be chased up. In just one year the level of council tax owed to the county has increased by 40 per cent. This is pretty bad project management. At a time that the authority is overspending by over £1 million in one area, we have the double whammy of revenue not being collected."

Conny Millard, who is the Lib Dems candidate for the by-election to elect a county councillor following the death of Eileen Goodrich added, "Coming from a business background I find it very worrying that just because a new computer system was being introduced, the money owed to the council has being allowed to rise sharply. I am sure that a lot of local council tax payers are going to be very annoyed when they discover the council appears relaxed over this situation."

"The amount of council tax arrears was highlighted by the South Wales Argus as recently as November 2005. It was then reported that the amount owing to Monmouthshire stood at around 6,881 accounts (households) in arrears.

She added, "Every pound of arrears not collected as a pound lost to invest in local schools or repair roads and pavements. Allowing the level of arrears to increase this year is to the detriment to local services at a time when the county's finances are very tight. If there is one priority for the Conservative-run council this year that is to collect the money it is owed and reconsider the £2 million that they are prepared to write-off."

Local area AM, Michael German, will attempt to the bring this issue to the attention of the Local Government Committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday of this week. "I will want to ask the Local Government Minister what impact Monmouthshire's proposal to write off millions of pounds of money owed to the council, as well as the result of soaring levels of arrears due to putting in new IT systems designed to collect the money in the first place, might have on council taxpayers in my area."