Hundreds of thousands of pounds in business rates written off by Salford council as firms go bust

Nearly £360,000 of business rates debt owed to Salford council - mostly as a result of firms going bust during the Covid-19 pandemic - has been written off. Some £288,000 went unpaid by a total of 36 firms which became insolvent while two companies "absconded" without coughing up a total of £70,000.

Jane Betts, Salford's service manager for business rates, told a lead member for finance and support services briefing that the authority was always attempting to recover balances, but went on to say: "There are occasions where it's uneconomical and debt needs to be written off on the grounds of efficiency".

She said the cases of bankruptcy "corresponded" to the period of the pandemic over the last two years. The amount written off amounted to 0.5 per cent of the total amount invoiced to businesses in Salford, said Ms Betts.

READ MORE:Thousands of pounds in business rates written off by Salford as firms go bust

Councillor Bill Hinds said: "It strikes me that we are seeing more and more businesses who are finding difficulties and struggling. We can't do anything about it apart from giving them support.

"To get things into perspective, when the public see the amount of money that's being written off, I want to highlight that it's a very small percentage of what we are invoicing." Meanwhile, the council has also written off £378,00 owed to it in council tax and a further £110,000 in housing benefit overpayments.

Penny Mitchell, the authority's council tax service manager, said the council tax owed amounted to 0.25 per cent of the total levy for Salford. She said the write-off had been forced by people who had absconded, from residents they were unable locate, or who had died.

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