Council write off £5.22m of debts over last year

AMOUNT INCLUDES MORE THAN £2M IN COUNCIL TAX AND £1.12M IN BUSINESS RATES

- By ABIGAIL MARLOW Local Democracy Reporter

KIRKLEES Council wrote off £5.22m of debt in the last financial year, with more than £2m of this coming from unpaid council tax.

A report on the bad debt written off by the local authority in the 2024/25 financial year went to the latest meeting of the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee.

A total of £5.22m was written off in 2024/25 compared to £5.36m in 2023/24. The top five areas where debt has been written off for 2024/25 are adult social care (£150k), housing benefit overpayment (£238k), housing revenue account (£394k), council tax (£2.37m) and business rates (£1.12m).

Kirklees Council’s head of welfare and exchequer, Sarah Brown, gave a presentation at the meeting and said that despite the council’s “best efforts, not all debts can be collected, with budget provision built in to address this.