Council tax and NDR collection rates 2022-2023

Tuesday 25 July 2023

Every June/July, the UK Government publishes data on council tax collection, as does the Welsh Government. Here is a summary of the council tax data, plus non-domestic rates data for England, for the last financial year.

Performance of Excel’s clients in Wales

Before we look at the data in more detail, we are very pleased to report that two thirds of the top performing local authorities in Wales for council tax collection rates are Excel clients.

In terms of the amount outstanding per chargeable dwelling, over half of the local authorities that are lower than the average £141 outstanding are Excel clients.

Council tax data - Wales

Seven authorities recorded a year-on-year increase in their collection rate in 2022-23 and 15 recorded a decrease.

In 2022-23, billing authorities collected 96.1% of council tax billed, a decrease of 0.2%. The amount collected for 2022-23 bills, excluding council tax reduction scheme, was £1,904 million out of £1,982 million collectable.

During 2022-23, billing authorities collected £40 million of arrears and wrote off £8 million as uncollectable. The total amount outstanding at 31 March 2023 was £198 million, of which £77 million was in-year arrears.

Council tax data – England

In 2022-23 local authorities collected a total of £36.5 billion in council tax, irrespective of the year to which it related. This was an increase of £2 billion, or 5.6%, over 2021-22. Authorities report that this is mainly due to increases in council tax bills.

By the end of March 2023, authorities had collected £35.7 billion of council tax that related to 2022-23 and achieved an average in-year collection rate of 96%, an increase of 0.2% over 2021-22.

At 31 March 2023, the total amount of council tax still outstanding amounted to £5.5 billion. This is a cumulative figure and includes arrears that may stretch back a number of years. This is an increase of £510 million over the figure at the end of 2021-22.

Non-domestic rates data - England

By the end of March 2023, local authorities had collected £24.2 billion in non-domestic rates that related to 2022-23 and achieved an average in-year collection rate of 96.8%, an increase of 1.3% over the previous year.

In 2022-23, local authorities collected a total of £23.4 billion in non-domestic rates, irrespective of the year to which it related. This was an increase of £2.1 billion over the figure for 2021-22. This was mainly due to an increase in the receipts relating to 2022-23 that has been partially offset with an increase in refunds given in respect of previous years due to appeals and refunds following the application of the Covid Additional Relief Fund (CARF).

However, at 31 March 2023, local authorities reported that the total amount of non-domestic rates still outstanding amounted to £2.5 billion. This is a cumulative figure and includes arrears that may stretch many years. This is a decrease of £99 million on the 2021-22 figure.