MORE than £100,000 owed to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council in housing benefit, business rates and other debts will be written off.

Councillor John Izett, the Cabinet’s finance chief at the borough council, has agreed to write off £102,124 in unpaid charges owed to the local authority.

The debts have been written off for a variety of reasons including a person or business going bankrupt or if the borough council can no longer trace someone who has left the area.

All debts over £2,000 that are to be written off must be agreed by Cllr Izett. In a Cabinet decision notice, it says that £8,744 of housing benefit debts, £69,555 of unpaid business rates, £21,576 of unpaid property debts and £2,249 of other debts will be written off, in addition to £50,573 written off under delegated powers between April and September.

However, the report says that a lot of work has been done to reduce the amount of debts that have to be written off each year by the council.

As previously reported by The Gazette, the borough council launched a crackdown on the number of unpaid debts, which included measures to make it easier for residents to pay their council tax bills, such as simplifying the sign-up procedure for direct debits, taking payments over the phone, and working closely with bailiffs.

In the report, Cllr Izett said: “I am pleased to see the continued progress in our collection rates as a council. The much lower level of debt write-offs is also a positive sign and demonstrates this council's determination to ensure that those who benefit from our services do so properly and pay their share of the costs in council tax etc.

“Making provision for write-offs is never welcome but I am pleased that these are now much lower at, for example, 40 per cent of the previous level for business rates and only 11 per cent of previous council tax write-offs.”