Decision Maker:

Outcome:

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: July 8, 2025

Purpose:

Content: Salford City Council - Record of Decision   I, Councillor Jack Youd, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services & Regeneration, in exercise of the powers contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby approve:   The write off of irrecoverable debts set out below:   Council Tax - Council Tax £1,133,970.19   Housing Benefit Overpayments - £134,711.61   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: These write offs are from debts over a 30 year period but predominately from the last 20 financial years. A breakdown of net write offs by year is in the Year-by-Year breakdown provided in the report.  To provide some context, the value of these write offs actioned over the last 5 months, which are mainly for arrears debts, is approximately equivalent to 0.5% of the Council Tax collectable debit for 2025/2026.   The source of funding is: The bad debt provision   Legal Advice obtained: Supplied by: Ashley Marks, Principal Lawyer: I have looked at the write off report for the period 01-FEB-2025 to 30-JUN-2025 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 Jack Youd                                               Dated: 8th July 2025 Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Finance, Support Services & Regeneration     This decision was published on 9th July 2025.   This decision will come into force at 4.00 p.m. on 16th July 2025, unless it is called-in in accordance with the decision-making process rules.