Liverpool Council has more than £200m in outstanding debt that it does not expect to recover.
As the local authority moves ever closer to finalising its budget for the next financial year, a statement on the strength and viability of its plans by its own chief finance officer has indicated how much money the council has lost out on over previous years. In his assessment of the robustness of the budget estimates for 2023/24, Ian Duncan, interim chief finance officer wrote how Liverpool Council has set aside more than £270m to “cover the cost of known liabilities of previous years.”
Mr Duncan’s report said “by far the largest amounts” are for bad or doubtful debts. This amounts to almost £230m, according to the officer’s analysis, that Liverpool Council either must write off or does not expect it will get back.
