UNPAID council tax is costing households in East Lancashire up to £150 each.

Figures show that £2.5 billion is owed in council tax arrears in England, with £3 in every £100 going uncollected last year.

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In East Lancashire, with the exception of the Ribble Valley – where council tax debts were less than £50 per household – local authorities were owed more than the national average.

Councils in Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley, Pendle, and Blackburn were all owed debts equivalent to between £100 and £150 per household.

But councillors said that arrears were higher in East Lancashire because more people in the area are struggling to pay bills.

They refuted claims made by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who said that local authorities were “not collecting their own taxes”.

Coun Andy Kay, Blackburn Council’s Executive Member for Resources said: “As a council we use all of the available options outlined in legislation to recover unpaid Council Tax. Our performance of collecting Council Tax has consistently improved over a period of 12 years and only dipped recently as a direct consequence of the welfare reforms introduced by the coalition Government.

“The most significant welfare changes have included the abolition of Council Tax benefit, and the introduction of a local council tax support scheme as well as the imposition of the ‘bedroom tax’, all of which have adversely affected many thousands of the least well off in the borough.”

Rossendale Council also disputed claims that councils were not collecting taxes.

A spokeswoman said: “Rossendale Council’s in-year collection rate for Council Tax is circa 97 per cent, however the council continues to pursue the outstanding debt indefinitely and historically has ultimately recovered 99 per cent of all Council Tax raised.”

Dean Langton, head of Central and Regeneration Services at Pendle Council, said: “We only consider writing-off debts after taking all possible steps to collect them and where it’s not economically viable to continue pursuing them.

“However, if, in the future, we get information that could lead to the recovery of previously written-off debt, we will always try to recover it. In fact, since April 1 2014 we’ve managed to recover around £13,000 that had previously been written off.”