“Of course, there is the whole other argument about the ‘efficiency’ (or not) of asking people to pay a small amount of council tax themselves, then trying to collect that – and the inevitable question ‘ would it not be cheaper overall to just have a 100% CTR scheme, and not spend money chasing small debts which ultimately may not ever be paid’?”
I will always remember something that Sean O’Sullivan, an occasional visitor to the forum, once said: you don’t want to collect a small amount of money from a large number of people, you want to collect a large amount of money from a small number of people. His solution: a CTR scheme that stopped at Band F. No caps or limits for people in the higher bands – just no CTR, end of. I have seen one authority do this, Runnymede iirc. Be interesting to know how it worked out for them.
