Manchester Labour "Named and Shamed" in Council Tax Collection Failure

2.54.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 14th Jul 2010

Local residents have been let down by Labour's careless attitude to finances says Manchester Deputy Leader Paul Shannon

One pound in every ten owed in Council Tax was not collected by Manchester's Labour Council, new Government figures have shown.

Manchester's Labour Council has been listed in a Government report as "bottom of the league" out of all 10 Greater Manchester Councils for collection of Council Tax in the last financial year.

Greater Manchester's 3 Liberal Democrat Councils collected at least 95% of the Council tax due in the year, but Labour Manchester collected only 90.9% of the expected total.

This means that Manchester missed out on over £11 million that should have been collected in Council Tax by Manchester's bungling Labour Council. The average collection rate across England was over 97%.

Manchester's Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Councillor Paul Shannon said:

"This is totally incompetent. It's unacceptable that the Council has been named and shamed as being the worst at recovering what it is owed. If everyone liable had paid, Manchester would have received £11 million more income. This is money that should have been spent on public services in Manchester."

"Local residents have been let down by Labour's careless attitude to finances. This Council should have learnt lessons by now from other Councils with much better collection rates. Labour cannot go on allowing one in ten Council tax bills to go unpaid."