Almost £2m owed to Arun taxpayers

ALMOST £2m in council taxes is still owed to Arun District Council for the past year.

The local authority is placed 24th out of 67 in south-east England for the arrears of the property charges.

The figure has been revealed by the GMB union. It says more action should be taken to ensure all those liable to pay council tax and the national non-domestic rate '“ for business premises '“ contribute their fair share of the cost of public services.

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Richard Ascough, the union's regional secretary for the south east, said: "This level of uncollected local taxes cannot be accepted at a time when there are deficits in the public finances which are giving rise to cuts in public services and job losses at a time of high unemployment."

An Arun District Council spokeswoman confirmed the figures from the union were correct but said its officers had a good record of collecting the taxes and pursuing non-payers.

"By the end of March we had collected 98 per cent of the year's council tax, resulting in the reported 2.179m shortfall.

"Paying council tax is not optional and we will continue to take all steps open to us to recover the remainder."

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The detailed figures for the district council show its unpaid council tax for the year to March 31 came to 1,586,000 and 593,000 for national non-domestic rates.

The GMB has called for the rules to be revamped to make non payment of the charges very difficult.