£2.7m Council Tax Not Collected

11.45.15am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 6th Jul 2005

Richmond upon Thames Council failed to collect £2.7m in council tax last year, according to figures for all London boroughs obtained by the Liberal Democrats through parliamentary questions. Comparable figures for neighbouring boroughs are:

Hounslow £4.8m

Wandsworth £3.6m

Richmond £2.7m

Merton £2.4m

Kingston £2.4m

Harrow £2.3m

Sutton £1.5m

Vincent Cable MP said: "it is massively frustrating for people who do pay their council tax, despite hardship in some cases, that large sums are uncollected often because residents move elsewhere leaving bills unpaid.

"Richmond is one of the better boroughs, and not in the same league as Hackney or Croydon where over £9m is unpaid. But the performance is by no means brilliant and four boroughs do better, especially Lib Dem controlled Sutton and Kingston, despite larger populations.

"The underlying problem, however, is that council tax is an onerous tax unrelated to people's ability to pay and some people in financial difficulty simply cannot afford to pay. That is why my colleagues and I argue for an income based system."