London’s councils are currently leading the way for getting the bailiffs in to recover debts according to the Money Advise Trust charity.
The figures obtained by the charity show that two London councils are top of the list for handing debt cases to debt collectors. Barking and Dagenham are the places to avoid if you want to break any council rules. They passed on a total of 34,041 to bailiffs last year alone which was not too far away from half the number of households in the district.
Fortunately the debts were less likely to be people living in the region and more likely to concern people visiting. Council tax debt made up a much smaller proportion of the debt owed to the council than parking fines, which is not surprising given the congestion and strict enforcement of parking in the city.
Joining Barking and Dagenham in the UK’s top 5 councils for debt recovery were Haringey, Hammersmith, Westminster and Fulham. However it is not just London where councils are getting tough. The UK saw 2.1 million cases of debt sent on to debt collectors between 2014 and 2015. This marked a significant increase of 16% overall.