Bailiffs to hunt council tax dodgers as another London borough seeks emergency bailout
Bailiffs to hunt council tax dodgers as another London borough seeks emergency bailout
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A London council is to hire bailiffs on contracts worth almost £2m to hunt down council tax dodgers. Lewisham already has in-house “enforcement agents” but wants contractors to target former residents who have left the borough with outstanding bills.
They could also be tasked with confronting current residents or businesses who have failed to pay their council tax or business rates, despite approaches from council debt collection staff. It is the latest example of how London councils are having to adopt increasingly hardline tactics to recoup every penny possible due to being in financial dire straits.
Enfield is seeking £30m. Neighbouring Haringey is seeking a £37m emergency bailout. “Lewisham already has in-house EAs [enforcement agents] but there is a need to supplement this with external baillifs who will contact debtors now living outside of Lewisham but also to make a further effort at recovering debt where Lewisham’s own EAs have failed.”.
The Labour-run council has a potential annual income from council tax of £186m from the 135,000 homes in the south-east London borough. In addition, there are 6,300 businesses that owe about £60m in business rates annually. Lewisham is already one of the 15 London boroughs that charges in excess of £2,000 for benchmark band-D council tax bills.
More boroughs are expected to break the £2,000 threshold when their demands for the 2025/26 financial year are issued over the coming weeks. Lewisham said it would carry out credit reference checks on debtors before deciding whether to refer them to bailiffs.
