§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the figures for arrears to date in London boroughs of Hackney, Islington, Lambeth and Southwark in respect of(a) domestic rates, (b) community charge, (c) council tax and (d) rents; and what are the average figures for Inner London boroughs[38237]
§ 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
Rent arrears Community charge1 £000 Council tax1£000 Cumulative1£000 As a percentage of rent roll foe 1996/97 Hackney 2,080 27,395 35,087 30.1 Islington n/a n/a 16,854 15.6 Lambeth 54,314 41,426 30,186 26.0 Southwark 24,608 13,508 23,500 16.7 Total Inner London n/a n/a 2163,913 215.4 1 Comparisons of amounts of arrears can be misleading as authorities' figures reflect decisions about when to write off arrears, and the amounts of debts debited. 2 It would not be meaningful to attempt to provide an average rent arrears figures for the Inner London boroughs. We have instead provided the total cumulative rent arrears for all the Inner London boroughs, together with this figure expressed as a percentage of their rent roll.