According to figures collected for the Welsh Assembly, local councils in Wales are owed more than £78 million in unpaid Council Tax. They have only collected 96.4% of the total Council Tax levied in last financial year. Of the 22 councils in Wales, Blaenau Gwent has the lowest collection rate at 94.5% while Pembrokeshire had the highest at 98.3%.
It is generally accepted that the recession is the cause for the falling rate of collection. I would suspect that the higher the rate of Council Tax set the lower the collection rate because the greater the difficulty people would have paying their bills - but I have not seen figures to prove such a correlation.
The Federation of Small Business says Councils are tougher when it comes to collecting the Business Rate.
Offering a discount to those who pay their Council Tax by Direct Debit may well help secure a higher collection rate - as well as reducing collection costs.
