Sandwell Council owed more than £2m in council tax

A total of 19,628 council tax accounts were not paid in full by the end of the 2014/15 financial year, new figures show.

This has left the council needing to chase £2.2million. But council chiefs say despite the outstanding payments, they have a high council tax collection rate in the borough.

Council deputy leader Steve Eling said he believed some of debt could be down to one late payment rather than a 'substantial' amount of arrears.

He added the authority was confident of recovering cash owed by residents and was committed to pursuing those who fail to pay.

"The arrears from the last financial year currently stand at £2.2 million which we will continue to collect.

"At March 31 2015, there were 19,628 accounts in some level of arrears but this could be because of one late payment as opposed to accounts being in substantial arrears.

"Generally speaking the people of Sandwell are good payers and consistently our recovery rates for the collection of council tax is one of the best nationally for Metropolitan Authorities hitting 98.3 per cent for 2014/1015.

"Some people merely forget to pay or pay late and this could be avoided if more people opted to pay by direct debit which is easier for them and means we don't have to chase people.

"We also pursue arrears in Sandwell as this is only fair to those whom always pay on time as opposed to those people who sadly never seem to pay until we take action against them.

"We only write off bad debts when there is no prospect of receiving the payment or when the cost of pursuing old debt is too much," he said.

In September, it emerged that more than 10,000 housing tenants in Sandwell owed money to the council for outstanding rent payments equalling more than £3m.

Finance bosses warned that those who refused to pay up would face action.