Content

Salford
City Council - Record of Decision
 
I, Councillor Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for
Finance, Support Services & Regeneration, in exercise of the powers contained within the City
Council Constitution, do hereby
approve:
 
The write-off of irrecoverable Council Tax debts of
£1,749,291.33; and
 
The
write-off of irrecoverable Housing Benefit Overpayment debts of
£172,463.26.
 
The
Reasons are:
The liabilities mentioned in
the report for write-off are irrecoverable.
 
Options considered and rejected were:
To leave outstanding amounts on
the accounts for a further period.
 
Assessment of Risk:
The write-off of irrecoverable
debts is an essential part of the administration of Council Tax,
Business Rates and Housing Benefit overpayment
accounts.  These write-offs are from debts from 1993 to
the present and a breakdown of net write-offs by year is at
Appendix A to the report.  
The value of these write-offs,
which are mainly for arrears debts, is approximately equivalent to
0.86% of the Council Tax collectable debit for
2026/2027.
 
The source of funding
is: The bad debt provision
 
Legal Advice
obtained:
Supplied by Ashley
Marks, Principal Lawyer:

I have looked at the Council Tax write off report
for the period 01-Jul-2025 to 31-JAN-2026 and the Housing Benefit
Overpayment Report for 01-Jul-2025 to 31-JAN-2026 and can confirm
that the specific write off categories are all clear and cover the
most common scenarios i.e. deceased, absconded, insolvent or
uneconomical to pursue . These are all cases where the best legal
advice would be that the debt be written off as
non-recoverable.
 
Financial Advice
obtained: Supplied by David Eden, Finance
Manager:
There are sufficient provisions
available to cover the cost of the proposed write offs.
 
Procurement Advice
obtained: N/A
 
HR Advice
obtained: N/A
 
Climate Change Advice
obtained: N/A
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
Lead Member Report.
Some of the relevant documents
contain exempt or confidential information and are not available
for public inspection.
Other documents which are in
the public domain are the relevant write-off strategies.
 
Contact
Officer: Penny Mitchell, Service Manager – Council Tax
and BetterOff               
Email: penny.mitchell@salford.gov.uk
 
This
decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead
Member.
 
The
appropriate scrutiny panel to call-in the decision is the Overview
and Scrutiny Board.
 

Signed: Councillor Youd                                            
Dated: 10th March 2026
Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services
& Regeneration

 
This decision was published on 12th March 2026.
 
This decision will come into force at
4.00 p.m. on 19th March 2026, unless it is called-in in accordance with the
decision-making process rules.