How much the council spends on collecting council tax for every pound of tax it brings in — the price of running the billing-and-chasing machine. Lower looks more efficient, since collection is pure administration. But it only counts as efficient if the tax actually gets collected: a bargain-basement operation that lets bills go unpaid is worse than a slightly dearer one that collects nearly everything.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of London | london | 55.76 | 1st worst of 33 |
| Lambeth | london | 32.63 | 2nd worst of 33 |
| Rochdale | metropolitan | 31.52 | 1st worst of 36 |
| North Somerset UA | unitary | 25.48 | 1st worst of 62 |
| Hackney | london | 25.29 | 3rd worst of 33 |
| Portsmouth UA | unitary | 22.3 | 2nd worst of 62 |
| Enfield | london | 22.23 | 4th worst of 33 |
| Nottingham City UA | unitary | 21.48 | 3rd worst of 62 |
| Slough UA | unitary | 21.34 | 4th worst of 62 |
| Camden | london | 21.29 | 5th worst of 33 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reigate and Banstead | district | -14.62 | 1st best of 164 |
| Babergh | district | -6.14 | 2nd best of 164 |
| Brentwood | district | -6.04 | 3rd best of 164 |
| Gravesham | district | -5.15 | 4th best of 164 |
| Redcar & Cleveland UA | unitary | -4.72 | 1st best of 62 |
| Birmingham | metropolitan | -4.45 | 1st best of 36 |
| Barnet | london | -4.39 | 1st best of 33 |
| South Holland | district | -3.04 | 5th best of 164 |
| East Suffolk | district | -2.62 | 6th best of 164 |
| Hertsmere | district | -2.56 | 7th best of 164 |
| name | tax-collection-cost-per-pound-collected |
|---|---|
| dataset | 01-revenue-outturn |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | £ per £000 collected |
| grain | council-year |
| role | feature |
| source | Formula: `RO6_centax_cll_net_cur_exp / council tax collected`. Inputs: this dataset's CSV + amounts collected from sibling dataset `03-council-tax-collection` |
| period | FY 2017-18 to 2024-25, annual (year_ending 201803-202503) |
| missingness | "Rows with status other than "submitted" (i.e. "total" aggregates and "not submitted") must be filtered out; a non-submitted council-year is a genuine gap, not zero. 2024-25 covers 410/411 councils. Councils abolished/created in 2017-25 reorganisations appear only for the years they existed. Undefined where the 03-council-tax-collection join is missing." |
| score_note | Cost per pound collected on a universal function is a sharp efficiency measure; needs the dataset 03 join and its rate as a guard. |
| calculated | ../calculated/tax-collection-cost-per-pound-collected.csv |
| calculated_rows | 591 |
| calculated_periods | 2023-24 to 2024-25 |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| peer_group | districts (n=164), unitaries (n=63), metropolitan boroughs (n=36), London boroughs (n=33) — scored within each class against its median/IQR |
Efficiency of the council tax collection function: net collection cost per £000 of council tax collected. Must be paired with the collection rate from dataset 03 — a cheap function that collects poorly is not efficient, it is just underfunded.