See answers to previous information requests

The figures for each of the following financial years 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23, 2023-24 (to current date)

1. What is the total value of unpaid council tax debt owed to the council at the end of each financial year, To current date for 2023-24?
2017/18: £2,140,000
2018/19: £2,394,000
2019/20: £2,659,000
2020/21: £3,699,000
2021/22: £3,199,000
2022/23: £3,400,000
2023/24: £14,245,000*

For past financial years the above data has been obtained from our QRC4 return.
*For 2023/24 the available figure as listed is the total Council Tax debit balance as at 31/01/2024, including amounts due in future instalments up to 31/03/2024.

2. What is the total value of unpaid council tax debt owed to the council by a social housing provider at the end of each financial year, To current date for 2023-24?
We are unable to provide the information relating to past financial years. Council Tax database reports cannot be produced to show the balance due on specific Council Tax accounts as at a past date. To obtain the information, manual checking of the records would be needed, which would exceed the £450 cost limit of administering the response to the Freedom of Information request.

For example: The reported number of Council Tax account records for 2022/23 was 111,363. A manual check of a list of billing names on each reported case to identify accounts for social housing providers at an approximate rate of 3600 cases per hour, would take 31 hours to complete. At the rate of £25.00 per hour, the total cost would be £775.00. This exercise would need to be repeated for all financial years to identify every social housing provider account. Further work would then be needed to manually check the database records for each identified account to obtain the data about the debt owed as at the end of the relevant financial years.

As at 2023/24, ie to the current date, the total unpaid Council Tax debt due in respect of any financial year (for reporting purposes an unpaid Council Tax debt has been identified as being a debt which is subject to a summons or Liability Order) owed by social housing providers, is £21,287.31.

3. Please list the total value of unpaid council tax debt owed to the council by each individual social housing provider at the end of each financial year, To current date for 2023-24?
As per the reply to question 2 above, we are unable to provide information about past financial years. For 2023/24, as at now, the outstanding individual debts owed by different social housing providers are:

£13,516.65
£3091.18
£2503.01
£1564.92
£351.55
£130.00
£84.00
£46.00

Total: £21,287.31

4. For each year what was the total value of social housing provider council tax debt accrued in the 12 month period, To current date for 2023-24?
As per the reply to question 2 above, we are unable to provide information about past financial years. For 2023/24 the total value of currently unpaid Council Tax debt (identified as being a debt which is subject to a summons or Liability Order) owed by social housing providers, which has accrued in the current financial year, is £16,171.74.

5. What is the council policy around court summons and bailiff action for social housing providers with outstanding debt?
In circumstances where the Council Tax instalment payments have not been received as required after the issue of a bill and a reminder notice, the statutory collection process is followed for social housing providers. A summons will be issued. Before instructing an Enforcement Agent we will email or telephone the social housing provider to give a further opportunity for the debt to be paid to stop the action.

6. What is the council policy around issuing class B exemption. Does the council automatically award a social housing provider, does the social housing provider have to request once per property or every account change?
Any first application for a Class B exemption would need to be approved by our revenues management team. Once approved, where it is known that all relevant properties owned by the charitable organisation are occupied in furtherance of the objects of the charity, exemptions would be applied on the Council Tax for those properties when billing the charity in future for periods when the properties are empty.