33 London boroughs must step up efforts to collect the £752m uncollected Council Tax and business rates
Westminster tops London league for uncollected Council Tax and business rates in 2020/21 as a total for 33 London boroughs amounts to £752m uncollected, new GMB study shows.
The 33 London boroughs must step up efforts to collect the £752m uncollected Council Tax and business rates and use it to fund the services the public depends on says GMB London.
Westminster council tops the London league for uncollected Council Tax and business rates in 2020/21 with £160.7m not collected. It was followed in the top five in the uncollected tax league by Hackney with £50.1m not collected, Camden £49.7m uncollected, Kensington and Chelsea £33.6m and City of London £30m uncollected.
Next in the uncollected London tax league were Tower Hamlets £28.2m, Lambeth £25.1m, Southwark £25m, Islington £24.4m and Brent £22m. Set out in the table below are the figures for all 33 London boroughs - with three columns: uncollected Council Tax, uncollected business rates and the total amount of uncollected tax- ranked by the total amount of uncollected tax.
For the 33 London boroughs, the total amount of uncollected Council Tax and business rates was a staggering £752m. This was comprised of £275.3m uncollected Council Tax and £476.7m uncollected business rates. For England as a whole, the total amount of uncollected Council Tax and business rates was £2,540.7m.
These figures are from a new study by GMB London of official figures on uncollected Council Tax and business rates. The link to the source data is in notes to editors below.
Uncollected Council Tax and business rates by London Boroughs
|
rank |
uncollected Council Taxes 2020-21 (£)* |
uncollected non-domestic rates 2020-21 (£)** |
total uncollected amount (£) |
|
|
London |
275,273,000 |
476,765,000 |
752,038,000 |
|
|
1 |
Westminster |
9,631,000 |
151,060,000 |
160,691,000 |
|
2 |
Hackney |
17,803,000 |
32,307,000 |
50,110,000 |
|
3 |
Camden |
13,620,000 |
36,065,000 |
49,685,000 |
|
4 |
Kensington and Chelsea |
9,125,000 |
24,498,000 |
33,623,000 |
|
5 |
City of London |
490,000 |
29,576,000 |
30,066,000 |
|
6 |
Tower Hamlets |
13,529,000 |
14,739,000 |
28,268,000 |
|
7 |
Lambeth |
15,270,000 |
9,817,000 |
25,087,000 |
|
8 |
Southwark |
10,692,000 |
14,327,000 |
25,019,000 |
|
9 |
Islington |
7,923,000 |
16,498,000 |
24,421,000 |
|
10 |
Brent |
12,793,000 |
9,254,000 |
22,047,000 |
|
11 |
Hillingdon |
6,552,000 |
14,752,000 |
21,304,000 |
|
12 |
Enfield |
9,657,000 |
10,393,000 |
20,050,000 |
|
13 |
Barnet |
11,863,000 |
7,412,000 |
19,275,000 |
|
14 |
Ealing |
8,407,000 |
9,909,000 |
18,316,000 |
|
15 |
Hammersmith and Fulham |
6,242,000 |
11,833,000 |
18,075,000 |
|
16 |
Waltham Forest |
8,747,000 |
8,570,000 |
17,317,000 |
|
17 |
Hounslow |
5,837,000 |
9,645,000 |
15,482,000 |
|
18 |
Newham |
11,549,000 |
3,566,000 |
15,115,000 |
|
19 |
Haringey |
7,934,000 |
6,234,000 |
14,168,000 |
|
20 |
Lewisham |
10,682,000 |
3,014,000 |
13,696,000 |
|
21 |
Greenwich |
9,231,000 |
4,152,000 |
13,383,000 |
|
22 |
Wandsworth |
4,539,000 |
8,781,000 |
13,320,000 |
|
23 |
Croydon |
10,187,000 |
3,032,000 |
13,219,000 |
|
24 |
Bexley |
6,992,000 |
4,501,000 |
11,493,000 |
|
25 |
Barking and Dagenham |
5,632,000 |
5,724,000 |
11,356,000 |
|
26 |
Bromley |
7,552,000 |
3,125,000 |
10,677,000 |
|
27 |
Richmond upon Thames |
3,797,000 |
6,585,000 |
10,382,000 |
|
28 |
Harrow |
7,609,000 |
2,706,000 |
10,315,000 |
|
29 |
Redbridge |
5,590,000 |
3,773,000 |
9,363,000 |
|
30 |
Merton |
3,896,000 |
5,153,000 |
9,049,000 |
|
31 |
Kingston upon Thames |
3,399,000 |
3,391,000 |
6,790,000 |
|
32 |
Havering |
6,082,000 |
557,000 |
6,639,000 |
|
33 |
Sutton |
2,421,000 |
1,816,000 |
4,237,000 |
|
275,273,000 |
476,765,000 |
752,038,000 |
||
|
* Calculated by subtracting 'amount of Council Tax collected' from 'estimated amount collectable' |
||||
|
** Calculated by subtracting 'amount of non-domestic rates collected' from 'estimated amount collectable' |
||||
Warren Kenny, GMB London Regional Secretary said:
“The 33 London boroughs must step up efforts to collect the £752m uncollected Council Tax and business rates and use it to fund the services the public depend on.
“Councils should have robust systems in place to deal with households and businesses that fail to pay. There can be no excuses for not trying to pick up all the money owed to the council.
“It should be noted that during the pandemic smaller businesses were exempt from paying business rates or were part of rebate schemes when closed. Councils should seek to enter into agreements with other businesses that were unable to pay to recover any unpaid rates in future years as business recovers to normal.
“This £752m in the London boroughs would be a great help for councils to pay for services and pay rises into the pockets of staff whose pay hasn’t kept up with inflation in previous years and who are now dealing with rising food, energy, fuel costs, and from April a National Insurance increase.”
End
Contact:
Shaun Graham, GMB London Region Senior Officer 078 8570 6556
Gavin Davies, GMB London Region Senior Officer 079 3098 3376
Notes to editors
Link to source data: Collection rates for Council Tax and non-domestic rates in England, 2020 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
