The council failed to collect millions of pounds worth of council tax last year, it has been found.
Recent government statistics show that in the year 2012/2013, six million pounds were left uncollected by Lambeth. This means that the council collected 94.7 per cent of what was due.
Lambeth Council came 27th out of 33 councils for tax collections as a percentage of total owed. It was the 10th highest collector of council tax in terms of cash.
The Lambeth Labour group has been criticised by the Liberal Democrats for seeking to attack the government for cuts, yet losing millions by failing to collect money owed. Lambeth Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Ashley Lumsden commented: “If the local authority would just get above average there would be over £2m extra for every year. Labour councillors have cut vital services unnecessarily in preference to collecting what is owed.
“Lambeth’s record on council tax is abysmal. We had the highest increases two years running and then the highest overall debt of some £50m. Now Lambeth’s added another £6m to the total.
“Perhaps if they spent less time planning how to spend £30m building a new Town Hall and more on the basics like collecting council tax we’d all be better off.”
Paul McGlone, cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “The latest government statistics show Lambeth does not have the lowest collection rate in London and any claims that Lambeth is the worst should check their facts before making allegations which are completely untrue.
“The latest government figures show Lambeth was the 10th highest collector of council tax, collecting over £106m last year. We are working hard to continue to increase collection rates in Lambeth and deliver value for money services. Since 2008 we have frozen council tax levels to help keep the cost of living down for our residents and we are committed to freezing council tax until 2014/15.”
The Liberal Democrats are hardly in a position to denounce the current Labour administration when it comes to Council Tax. They last came to power in 2002 along with the Conservative Party to form a coalition in Lambeth, (sound familiar). Band D was £810 in that first year, when they lost power 4 years later in 2006 it had increased to £1130 per annum. That is a 40% increase slapped on Lambeth residents. Band D for this year is £1228 an increase of less than 9% in nearly double the amount of years. Whatever the collection rate for Council Tax in 2013 is, at least it has been kept frozen over the last few years, unlike under the Liberal Democrats in Lambeth who made residents dip deeper into their finances. Had they continued in office with this amount of increase then Band D would now be set at around £2200. I will let readers decide who has the strong case when it comes to Lambeth Council Tax, however, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Lambeth does not have the upper hand. He was part of the Liberal Democrats that approved those hikes back in 2002 -2006.
Lambeth Council gets away with it because it assumes people will vote the administration back in next year. This what happens in Lambeth when an administration stays in office too long. Incompetence and arrogance doing a long tango
Yep, the fundamentals of running a business, getting your customers to pay. Not only are Lambeth completely hopeless at running maintenance on their infrastructure, roads, public places, trees etc, they cannot do the fundamentals that keep a business alive. If they were a private business then they would be bankrupt and out of it, but as they are not, they are no doubt giving themsleves above inflation pay rises??