HARLOW: Council told it "could do better" over council tax

3:20pm Thursday 26th June 2008

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HARLOW Council is doing well in collecting tax from local businesses, but not so well in getting council tax from local residents.

It collected 99.6 per cent of the £38,751 it was owed in non-domestic rates (business rates) in the last financial year; the average for all local authorities in England was 98.7.

That score put Harlow Council in the top 25 per cent of local authorities for non-domestic collection rates.

But its council tax collection rate - 95.5 - is below the 97.1 national average, and meant it failed to collected £2,481 of the £32,714 owed for the community tax.

But it did represent an improvement on the previous year's 95.1 per cent haul.

Harlow Council policy and resources committee chairman Simon Carter warned that the "credit crunch" could make it difficult for some residents to pay their council tax, and urged anyone with concerns about this to contact the council for assistance.