§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what are the outstanding arrears for each London borough with respect to(a) domestic rates, (b) community charge, (c) council tax and (d) rents. [35211]
§ Mr. RaynsfordInformation on outstanding arrears with respect to domestic rates is not available.
Information on community charge and cumulative council tax arrears for local authorities is not collected centrally. However, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) regularly publishes 2W estimates for individual authorities. The information shown is provisional and relates to the position at 31 March 1997, and will be available in its Revenue Collection Statistics 1996–97 publication which is expected to be available from May 1998.
The information collected on rent arrears for English authorities is based on the cumulative total of rent arrears at the end of the financial year, and is reported to the Department on Housing Subsidy Claim returns.
Rent arrears Community charge Arrears1 outstanding at 31.3.97 £000 Council tax Arrears 1 outstanding at 31.3.97 £000 Cumulative Arrears 1 outstanding at 31.3.97 £000 Arrears as a percentage pf rent roll for 1996–97 per cent London Corporation of London n/a n/a 313 4.7 Inner London Camden 6,087 13,231 7,921 8.8 Greenwich 7,454 7,186 14,772 17.5 Hackney 2,080 27,395 35,087 30.1 Hammersmith and Fulham 4,800 8,618 5,786 12.6 Islington n/a n/a 16,854 15.6 Kensington and Chelsea 21,314 3,289 2,422 8.7 Lambeth 54,314 41,426 30,186 26.0 Lewisham 25,261 16,469 9,007 10.8 Southwark 24,608 13,508 23,500 16.7 Tower Hamlets 24,841 25,128 4,278 4.9 Wandsworth 29 7,857 5,679 8.4 Westminster 5 3,797 3,041 5.8 Outer London Barking and Dagenham 845 2,100 1,949 3.6 Barnet 8,952 8,731 1,167 3.1 Bexley 1,989 1,680 795 3.3 Brent 19,927 13,198 13,500 24.4 Bromley 1,649 2,933 30 0.0 Croydon 3,604 9,793 2,907 5.4 Ealing n/a n/a 10,549 20.3 Enfield 2,661 10,828 3,054 7.1 Haringey 10,948 23,393 13,715 22.3 Harrow n/a n/a 912 4.2 Havering 2,221 3,581 893 2.9 Hillingdon n/a n/a 981 2.3 Hounslow 14,046 7,789 3,659 8.4 Kingston upon Thames 708 1,630 667 3.7 Merton 4,265 3,981 1,149 4.2 Newham 23,427 214,898 6,126 10.2 Redbridge 2472 24,722 859 3.8 Richmond upon Thames 2,376 2,422 1,243 5.8 Sutton 590 1,224 1,592 6.1 Waltham Forest 8,478 11,949 4,442 11.2 1Comparisons of amounts of arrears can be misleading as authorities' figures reflect decisions about when to write off arrears, and the amounts of debts originally debited. 2 Where 31 March 1997 information is not available, the previous year's figures (where available) have been substituted. 3 Local authority has made a large scale transfer of dwellings to a Housing Association.