'Go and enjoy the local shops' urges Stafford councillor as authority writes off business rate debts worth £128k

Councillor Ant Reid’s comments came as Stafford Borough Council’s cabinet agreed to write off five business rate debts totalling £128,447 which have been deemed “irrecoverable” by the authority.

Fellow cabinet member Jill Hood also raised concerns about the debt recovery process for families struggling to pay their council tax bills. A report to Thursday’s meeting (March 12) revealed that collection rates for the three month period up to December were lower than the same period last year.

Councillor Ralph Cooke, cabinet member for resources, said: “Council tax due for the 2025/26 year amounts to £111.8m, of which some 82.8% was collected by the end of December. The collection rate for the same period last year was 83.1%.

“The team will be increasing efforts to collect older council tax debts. And this may actually impact on some residents’ ability to pay this year’s charges.”

Councillor Hood, cabinet member for community, said: “We write off so much in debt that we can’t recover, yet a family who are struggling to pay their council tax, and ended up owing quite a lot of money, are chased by bailiffs in a very aggressive way. And then they find they also have to pay the entirety of the year that’s coming.

“It just doesn’t seem right to me. I just wish that we could find a way of recovering debt in a less aggressive manner.”

The meeting was told that £59.6m was due to the council in business rates for 2025/26. Councillor Cooke said: “Some 81.8% was collected by the end of December, showing a slight decrease on the previous year, which was 83%.”

The cabinet report said: “Repeating last year’s performance in the coming year will be challenging as many retail, hospitality and leisure establishments are facing increased bills as the government relief to these premises has reduced from 75% last year to 40% this year. Additionally a number of new and increased rating assessments since the start of the financial year have increased the amount that we have to collect by around 2.3%.”

Councillor Reid, cabinet member for economic development and planning, said: “We talk about the challenges the retail, hospitality and leisure establishments will have in the coming years. I would like to encourage anyone hearing us to go and enjoy the hospitality section in our area – that is one way to help them pay all their bills, not just their business rates.

“It’s the same with leisure – go bowling, go to the gym, go out there and enjoy the local shops we have got in our three towns and the farm shops as well. If these businesses have more custom, they will be more successful and they will be able to be stable and be able to afford the business rates, so please help our local community by helping our economy.”