Salford City Council have written off more than £700,000 in irrecoverable debts owed to them with businesses being hit hard by Covid, a council briefing heard.
The lead member for Finance and Support Services, councillor Bill Hinds was faced with two reports, one from business rates and the other from council tax and housing benefit over-payments.
The lead member was recommended to write off £415,099.33 in irrecoverable business rates - to which he agreed after it was established that all efforts had been made to pursue the debts owed.
The largest proportion of these debts owed was £389,090.22 from 53 businesses which could not be paid due to insolvency - something the meeting heard was a result of the Covid pandemic.
“Salford’s business rates team always attempts to recover the full balance of outstanding business rates charges; however, there are occasions when they are either unable to legally pursue a debt or where it is considered uneconomical to continue pursuit of a debt,” a report said.
“These debts need to be written off for the efficient maintenance of the accounts.
“The council has budget provision to cover the cost of debt written off.”
After agreeing to write off the debts, Cllr Hinds said: “We do not want to write off any debts but even the top companies in the country have had to write off debts in one way or another.”
The lead member was also recommended to approve the write-off of £231,707.37 in irrecoverable council tax debts as well as irrecoverable housing benefit overpayment debts of £62,514.26.
“Members have previously approved the current write off strategy which sets out the
circumstances where the debt is likely to be deemed irrecoverable,” a report said.
“Such circumstances include categories like: Absconders, Bankruptcy and Debt Relief Orders.”
Councillor Barbara Bentham, also in attendance at the briefing, regarded both figures from each of the reports as sad to see.
All the recommendations were approved from both reports, meaning the council wrote-off £709,320.96 in total.
Speaking after the approvals, Cllr Hinds said: “The (finance) team are doing a first class job.”
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