By Laurie Watson, Dave Lord, Rob McLaren and Claire Warrender

THE AMOUNT of council tax not collected by UK local authorities has increased to more than £760 million, new figures showed yesterday.

A study by the GMB union revealed that over 400 councils in Britain failed to collect all their council tax in the last financial year.

The figure was around £20 million more than the previous 12 months, the research found.

The amount of uncollected council tax increased in half of local authorities, said the GMB.

Glasgow topped the league for uncollected council tax at almost £25 million, followed by Birmingham (£19.4 million), Edinburgh (£15 million) and Manchester (£13.6 million).

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB said, “GMB has been criticised in recent years for publicising the inefficiency of council tax collection but I make no apologies for that.

“With over £760 million uncollected council tax in the last year alone, and more than half of councils getting worse at it, this is a serious issue.”

Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association, responded, “These figures entirely miss the point. Some council tax wasn’t gathered by March this year, but this doesn’t mean it will go uncollected.

“Councils will continue to chase the money that wasn’t paid last year and the vast majority of it will be collected.”

Scotland’s local authorities failed to collect £115,967,000 million in council tax last year, according to the GMB analysis.

The union believes this year’s council tax figures revealed an improvement of £3,243,000 compared to the previous year when £119,210,000 remained uncollected.

The union claim Dundee City Council was one of the worst offenders with an increase in the amount uncollected of almost £200,000.

Dundee, according to the GMB, was one of 13 local authorities across Scotland where there was actually an increase in the amount uncollected.

New estimates released in June revealed that for the 2006/07 financial year, only 90.7% of the sum owed by city residents has been paid—exactly the same as last year—which means Dundee City Council failed to improve its council tax collection rate for the first time in five years.

However, the GMB analysis revealed that £4,172,000 remained uncollected which they believe translates to an increase of £185,000 worth of unpaid taxes in 2006/07 compared to 2005/06.

However, Dundee City Council maintains that it has been making considerable efforts to improve its collection rate, with some success and although that streak has ended, the council is pointing to the wider range of payment options now available.

A city council spokesman said, “The council is aiming to increase its collection rate by encouraging more people to use direct debit to pay their council tax bills and it has also made it easy for people to pay online through the council’s website.”

Council tax collection rates in Perth and Kinross have shown a slight improvement over the last 12 months.

A total of £2,156,000 (3.6%) went uncollected in 2005/06 and £2,128,000 (3.4%) in 2006/07, an improvement of £28,000.

“The improvement means that Perth and Kinross Council is now the third-best performing local authority in mainland Scotland for council tax collection,” said a council spokesman.

“We are continuously working to improve even further.”

The amount of uncollected council tax in Angus fell over the last year.

In 2005/06 there was £1,554,000 of uncollected tax in the region, but this fell to £1,421,000 last year.

A spokeswoman for Angus Council said, “We are pleased that the amount of uncollected council tax has fallen and believe that our recent drive to encourage people to pay their council tax by direct debit is having a beneficial impact on our collection rates.

“Using the direct debit system ensures that people are less likely to fall behind in their payments.

“We will continue with our efforts to ensure the best possible collection rate for the benefit of all residents of Angus.”

Fife Council has responded with bemusement to criticism of their council tax collection rates, saying the amount they collect is going up year on year.

According to the GMB, £6,934,000 went uncollected in Fife in 2006/07—an improvement of £106,000 on the previous year.

However, Fife Council’s revenue services manager Alan Traynor said the local authority budgeted to collect 97.8% of the total council tax bill and had last year collected 94.3%—higher than the Scottish average.

“To date, the amount not collected in Fife stands at just 2.2% so I’m a bit bemused by the criticism,” he said.

“I just don’t understand the point they are making.

“For the fifth year in a row, collection rates have improved. That’s indisputable.”

He conceded that arrears had increased but said that was because each year’s arrears were added onto the next year’s total.

“I think to use cash figures is a totally misleading position. When you look at the percentages, our collection rates are pretty good,” he said.