Winding up Croydon's Council Taxpayers "for the common good"

Croydon’s municipal magazine for June and July includes a misguided attempt to present the town’s council tax collection rates as a triumph.

It’s a crude piece of propaganda infuriatingly headlined,  “Collecting for the common good”, that’s guaranteed to get people’s backs up; trumpeting the b**** b*** obvious. Here are a couple of examples, “we all benefit from Council Tax” and, " its value is almost priceless”, yes, yes, of course!

But the figures quoted are very selective and they only own up to a shameful total arrears figure near the end of the article.  Finance Director Richard Simpson says the figure is £35.9m.  But, according to local government minister Brandon Lewis, Croydon’s latest debt mountain is actually an eye watering £42.2 million. The article, rightly, explains that collecting these this money is a challenge with population of 330,000– more than some cities.

Brandon Lewis revealed Croydon’s debt in parliament, in a league table that ranks the town fourth in England for uncollected Council Tax.  That’s behind Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Lambeth.

To give a more comparable picture, I’ve worked these debts out on a per head basis and, on that basis, Croydon drops down a place to fifth, with a figure of £118.

The article trumpets a “record breaking” collection rate for 2012/13 of 96.22 per cent? What record would that be breaking, when just below the average for outer London, authorities in the previous year?

The author shoots him or herself in the foot by including a table showing collection rates steadily getting worse from 97.35 per cent in 2007/8 before - wait for it - falling to that record-breaking 96.22 per cent in 2012/13!  Shurley shome mishtake?

There’s some useful stuff in the article about some measures to help people who have fallen behind with their payments … but precious little detail or hard facts.  But, like I said – it’s dishonest and a cheap attempt at propaganda that ultimately fails.  In fact, it just makes Croydon’s reputation worse.

The figures below for collection rates – not arrears – shows Croydon 12th in outer London out of 20 councils. Decidedly average and much worse than both neighbouring Bromley and Sutton.

2011/12	Amount collectable	Actual amount collected	percentage
Richmond upon Thames	131,247	129,739	98.9
Sutton	94,675	93,256	98.5
Kingston upon Thames	93,269	91,796	98.4
Bromley	158,374	154,579	97.6
Merton	94,702	92,159	97.3
Ealing	133,292	129,360	97.1
Harrow	112,225	108,868	97.0
Hillingdon	116,925	113,384	97.0
Havering	116,939	113,176	96.8
Hounslow	102,194	98,707	96.6
Bexley	106,469	102,257	96.0
Croydon	158,888	152,397	95.9
Waltham Forest	87,506	83,819	95.8
Enfield	121,819	116,594	95.7
Barnet	172,353	164,745	95.6
Brent	102,339	97,875	95.6
Redbridge	108,434	103,233	95.2
Haringey	96,161	90,365	94.0
Barking and Dagenham	51,180	47,535	92.9
Newham	66,525	61,011	91.7

Local authorities which owe the most 2011/12

Rank	Local authority	Amount outstanding	population	Arrears per head
1	Liverpool	£113 million	465,700	£24.26
2	Birmingham	£98 million	1,074,000	£91.2
3	Manchester	£52 million	512,000	£101
4	Croydon	£42.2 million	363,400	£118.3
5	Durham	£41.5 million	42,939	£966.5
6	Lambeth	£41.1 million	303,100	£135.6
7	Hackney	£39 million	247,200	£157.8
8	Sheffield	£33.48 million	551,800	£60.7
9	Enfield	£33.44 million	312,500	£107
10	Lewisham	£33 million	248,922	£132.6