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Council owed more than £2m in tax and rates
SOUTH TYNESIDE COUNCIL ... Owed more than �2m in council tax and business rates.
SOUTH Tyneside Council is owed more than £2m in unpaid council tax and business rates, according to new union figures.
A table compiled by the GMB reveals that for all 12 councils in the North East, uncollected council tax totalled £28,996m for 2010/11.
For the same period, uncollected non-domestic rates added up to £14.289m.
For South Tyneside, £1.311m was owed in council tax and £1.003m in business rates, making a combined total of £2.314m.
Tom Brennan, GMB regional secretary, said: “It is a scandal and a disgrace, at a time when vital services for our elderly and our children in our local communities are being slashed due to Government cuts in funding, that more than £1bn nationally is going uncollected in council tax and business rates.
“Feeble excuses about being unable to collect these taxes no longer wash.
“Urgent reforms to assist hard-pressed council staff to collect these taxes are long overdue.
“It is high time that local and national politicians threw their weight behind GMB’s campaign for changes in the law relating to the way these taxes are collected, rather than dismissing the figures as distortions or exaggerations.”
According to GMB data, the worst authority for uncollected taxes was Durham County Council, where the monies owed amounted to £5.992m. In the same period, uncollected non-domestic rates were £3.237m, making a combined total of £9.229m.
Next-worst in the region were Northumberland (£6.365m uncollected), Gateshead (£6.267m) Newcastle (£3.506m) and Sunderland (£3.034m).
As well as South Tyneside, the total uncollected amounts passed the £2m mark in North Tyneside, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough.
The lowest total uncollected amount in the region was in Hartlepool, with £1.426m uncollected.
For the 326 councils in England the total uncollected amount was £1.021bn in the same period.
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Comments
There are 29 comments to this article
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bewilderedonlooker
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 01:00 PMAs South Tyneside councils sicknes rate is bellow the national average for UK councils (around 9 days per staff member)should we be complaining that the staff aren't being worked hard enough?
Scunnered
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 11:09 AMSICK staff at South Tyneside Council racked up a staggering 127 years in days off last year, new figures reveal. Perhaps the union should ask the council to be equally hard on lead swingers on the council staff. All this is a demand on the council tax monies and that is why the unions are worried about the people who can't or wont pay
Scunnered
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 11:04 AM£1 in every £5 of council tax raised in the UK is spent on council pensions. Could this be what the GMB is worried about
sanddancer
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:30 PMWhile I would be the first to agree that the sickness rates seem high and clearly need addressing. Lets not get too carried away with public sector bashing. Theres a BBC article going back to November last year with compares the sickness rates, Public sector running at 7.67 days per person (gazette) while comparible rates for the private sector were 6.5 days per person. Not a lot of difference in the actual rate.
myviewonlyandonlymine
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:05 PMIf if if if, thats what all you theories are based on. If my auntie had testicles she'd be my uncle.
myviewonlyandonlymine
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:04 PM"dont know"
wasthatthatguy
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 10:49 AMTaxation of the private sector provides the money to run the public sector. The mines and shipyards have gone, so provide no money to run the public sector. Have the private sector companies which have closed throughout the UK been replaced by new ones? Don't know. If they haven't, the public sector has to be "slimmed-down" in proportion. Lower tax revenues = smaller public sector.
myviewonlyandonlymine
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:29 PMWell the mines are all closed and pleasing people like you could prove to be the hardest job going.
geordie999
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 08:56 PMmyviewonlyandonlymine, raw nerve ? let me help you ...."posative" positive hardly a days graft down the mines ....is it .....?
myviewonlyandonlymine
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 07:31 PMGeordie, exactly what do you base that opinion on? Too many people come on here and knock those trying to do some good for this bourgh whilst hiding behind the safety of a computer screen, being a cllr is not an easy job especially when you've got people who are happy to complain but wouldn't dream of getting up off their backsides to do anything posative.
East Boldon Lad
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 07:21 PMRobbie,had similar experience in the public sector, proves nothing when you give micro snap shot evidence of performance of small team, whether in public or private sector. Spent most of my working life dealing with the inefficiencies, negligence, and, on, occasions outright fraud and criminality committed by some private sector enterprises. Try teaching for 30 mins in even a well disciplined school , confronting gang of private sector rogue builders ripping off elderly vulnerable person or dealing with fly tipping unlicensed private sector waste carriers... Remember, councillors hold down fulltime jobs and run businesses in addition to devoting average of 24 hours to council related work, "geordie",you take the task on if you think that it is just a "hobby".
RobbieJ
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 04:52 PMAs a manager of a team of 7, I have not had 1 single hour booked as sick in nearly 2 years. Guess what? I have a superb, admirable workforce - in the private sector.
geordie999
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 04:47 PM24 hours council work ?..you did say work didn't you , surely not in the same sentence ????? well paid hobby ..maybe ??
sanddancer
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:03 PMI remember when overtime was introduced where i worked. If you had a bad sickness record you did'nt get overtime simple. It cured sickness virtually over night.
East Boldon Lad
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 08:47 AM"myview" that situation is not the fault of STC, what would appear to be rightly criticised as somewhat lax legislation passed by Parliament in the form of The Local Government Act ties the hands of both STC and the local electorate. Most councillors put in an average of 24 hours council and ward related work per week, and, fortunately, although there are apparently some comparable examples in other LA Councils, such behaviour is far from typical.
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