AN ‘eyewatering’ £382,000 in unpaid business rates has been written off by Slough Borough Council with the agreement of council leaders – with one branding the sum ‘frightening’.
Leading councillors voted to approve the write off last Monday (17), after all attempts to collect the debt – owed by just three companies – had been ‘exhausted’. Councillor Wal Chahal, responsible for finance, said: “It’s an eyewatering number to be writing off, it’s just frightening.
“The question really is why have we got to that point – is it because we were slow in collecting, is it because of poor processes, poor procedures?
“What was the actual crux of why the money wasn’t brought in to the coffers of Slough Borough Council and used to pay for services that we desperately need for our residents?”
Wal Chahal
Andy Jeffs, the council’s director of revenue, said two companies that owed the money had dissolved, while a third – which owed the largest amount – had gone into liquidation. However, he pointed out that the council collected almost 99 per cent of business rates owed to it last year.
Councillor Ishrat Shah asked why the companies’ owners couldn’t still be pursued for the money. She said: “The businesses are dissolved but the people are still there – so money should be recovered just like we recover council tax.”
But council leader Dexter Smith said the longstanding debts were only to be written off after ‘we’ve been through a process of trying to recover them’.
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
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