Conservative councils best for Council Tax collection rates - Labour ones worst

The DCLG has released figure for Council Tax collection rates. Lots of us could be doing better, certainly my own borough included. There will be all sorts out of excuses, regional variations, London councils with transient populations face particular challenges, and so on.

But if you look at the political control of the council's doing worst there does seem to be a bit of a pattern. Newham has the worst Council Tax collection rate in the country at 91.7%. All the ten worst performing councils are run by Labour.

They are in order:

Newham
Manchester
Salford
Southwark
Barking and Dagenham
Hackney
Stoke-on-Trent
Lewisham
Nottingham City
Bradford

Here are the winners in reverse order:

Brentwood
Cotswold
South Hams
Chiltern
St Edmundsbury
Huntingdonshire
Wokingham
South Northamptonshire
City of London
North Kesteven

Well done North Kesteven with a collection rate of 99.4%. All the councils with the highest collection rates are Conservative - apart from the City of London which, of course, is run by independents.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps says:

"These figures show labour councils couldn't care less when it comes to protecting the public purse.

"Instead of making political cuts to frontline services in order to score cheap political points, places like  Manchester and Newham should have spent a bit more time collecting council tax.

"The millions squandered due to poor financial management could have been diverted to protecting  frontline services.

"Ed Miliband needs to show some leadership and condemn his councils for their failure to get a grip of their finances."