TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington are to take a softer line with council tax payers and businesses which are in genuine financial difficulty as a result of the credit crunch.
The borough council will “ease off” when it comes to the final resort of enforcement action against non-payers.
But council leader Ian Marks (pictured) has warned that the softer line should not be interpreted as a charter for bad payers.
He said: “The council has a very good record in collecting council tax and business rates.
“We have a policy that is both firm and fair but, at the end, does rely on taking effective enforcement action against non-payers.
“We are proposing to ease off at this last enforcement stage for individual council taxpayers and businesses that are facing genuine hardship.
“But I must emphasis this is not a charter for people not to pay, because it will only apply to cases where there is real need.”
Coun Marks said one consequence of this could be that the council might face a slight worsening in its performance indicators and get rapped over the knuckles by Government and bodies such as the Audit Commission.
But he hoped similar action could be taken nationally and had raised it at the regional forum of council leaders and with the Government Office for the North West and asked for it to be brought up nationally.
Coun Marks said everyone was affected in some way by the economic situation and, just as the Government was taking various actions, so should the council.
Many small and medium-sized local companies supplied the council with goods or services and one action the authority could take immediately would be to pay bills more quickly to ease any liquidity and cash flow problems.
The council’s revenue and benefits service would continue to work closely with local families to ensure they were receiving all the benefits they were entitled to.
“Over the last six months they have already helped 400 households claim either housing or council tax benefit for the first time – worth more than £1 million to the local economy,” he said.
Coun Marks said the Government had stressed the importance of pressing on with infrastructure and building projects as the council had a large number of exciting projects at various stages which it intended to actively pursue.
It would also be talking to registered social landlords and other interested parties in the town about whether action could be taken to provide more affordable home and help out with repossession problems.
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