ST HELENS Council’s financial woes are being impacted by a “concerning” fall in council tax and business rates payments, councillors have heard.

According to the council’s latest performance report, which covers quarter two, collection rates have deteriorated compared to the same period last year.

At the end of September 2020, just over half (52.5 per cent) of council tax had been collected by the local authority, below a target of 54 per cent.

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This dip has been attributed to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, just 51.1 per cent of non-domestic business rates have been received in the year to date, against a target of 56.1 per cent.

Comparative performance (2019/20) places St Helens in the bottom quartile for its statistical neighbour group, according to the council report.

Labour councillor Martin Bond, cabinet member for finance and governance, addressed the issue at cabinet on Wednesday, and said the authority cannot lose sight of the fact there are “real people” behind the data.

“These are figures that are quite concerning,” Cllr Bond said.

“I’ve talked about that in a different arena in terms of the impact on income for the authority at large.

“What I would say of those is, they are at the whim of the pandemic and behind these figures and these numbers and the arrows pointing whichever way they’re pointing, are real people, real families, real human beings, who’ve lost their jobs.

“Families impacted by that, business people who may have spent their lives building up their business who, because if the pandemic, through no fault of their own, have lost their businesses.

“So whilst I’d like to give a resounding report on how we’re gonna improve that, we are in the pandemic and the pandemic is directly affecting that.

“And we should always remember, when we look at these dry figures that these are real people, real families that are affected by the pandemic that impact these figures.”

In August, “soft” reminders were sent out to households that hadn’t paid their council tax.

Cash received in September saw a rise of more than £1.8 million to that received in August.

In September, the authority sent statutory reminders to households who had not paid council tax.

No new cases have been sent to the enforcement agent, the report says, but this will commence in October for the appropriate cases.

It says the council will “continue to maximise revenue collection over the life of the debt”, including targeting recovery action to those who can pay, while supporting low income households.

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In relation to unpaid business rates, the report says businesses were sent statutory reminders in August and September.

Cash received in September saw a rise of more than £1.3 million to that received in August.

The council will now look to send cases, where appropriate, to the enforcement agent in October, with work continuing to target debt recovery.