Campaign group slams "shocking" use of bailiffs by councils

Campaign group Big Brother Watch has attacked the “shocking” extent to which councils use debt recovery agents to recover unpaid council tax and parking fine debts.

The group said freedom of information requests had revealed that almost six million cases had been passed to bailiffs by 320 councils between 2007 and 2010.

Daniel Hamilton, Director of Big Brother Watch, claimed that sending in bailiffs to recover debts should always be the absolute last resort.

“The fact local councils have passed more than six million cases to bailiffs for matters as trivial as the late payment of council taxes and parking fines is truly shocking,” he claimed.

“In many cases, bailiffs are a law unto themselves; barging their way into people’s homes, intimidating vulnerable members of the public and imposing rip-off charges. The coalition government must act now to end the culture of bully-boy debt collection which has taken hold in Town Halls across the country”.

Big Brother Watch said the top ten authorities for using bailiffs and debt recovery were:

1. City of Edinburgh
2. Glasgow City
3. Birmingham
4. Liverpool
5. Manchester
6. Newham
7. Leeds
8. Barnet
9. Fife
10. Redbridge.

Of the 5,939,003 cases, some 4,527,917 related to non-payment of council tax and 1,411,086 related to non-payment of parking fines.