Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Mullin introduced the report and explained that Financial Procedure Rules (section 5.2) required Cabinet to approve any recommendation to write off debts in excess of £25,000.

            A £103,150 Business Rates debt was considered to be irrecoverable for the Arcadia Group Plc.  The company was placed into Administration in December 2020 with debts in excess of £800m owed to creditors and with a £510m deficit in the company pension fund.

            The company entered into Liquidation from July 2021.  Consequently, there would be few or no assets available for non-preferential creditors.  Successful recovery of the business rate debt was no longer possible and a write off was necessary.

            The Chief Officer (Governance) explained that there were no direct financial implications for the Council or local taxpayers by writing off this debt as business rates losses were borne by the National Collection Pool for Wales.  As the Collection Pool was supported by Welsh Government, non-payment of rates did though have a wider impact on the Welsh taxpayer.

RESOLVED:

That the write off of the £103,150 business rate debt for the Arcadia Group Plc be approved.