
Birmingham Council urged to improve council tax collection rate
Robert Alden, leader of the council's Conservative group, said council tax collection was "really fundamental to the financial viability of the organisation going forward".He said about 1 in 10 people's council tax was not collected last year - a figure he described as "appalling" at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.He continued: "I would be interested to hear what cabinet are doing to actually try and drastically improve that collection rate so we can make sure the money the council is owed is collected."Karen McCarthy, cabinet member for finance, responded by saying provisional figures indicated a "continuing rise in the percentage collected"."With the caveat that those are provisional figures, I can say that they actually show a very slight improvement on the previous year which, given the year we've had, is remarkable," she said.From April, those living in a Band D property will be charged £2,237 for the 2025/26 financial year - up from the current £2,083.76.
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