verification / datasets / 03-council-tax-collection / SOURCE.md

Council tax collection rates and arrears

Publisher

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Accredited official statistics, derived from the Quarterly Return of Council Taxes and Non-Domestic Rates (QRC4) submitted by billing authorities.

Landing pages

Latest edition (2024-25): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/collection-rates-for-council-tax-and-non-domestic-rates-in-england-2024-to-2025 (published 25 June 2025, last updated 30 July 2025)
Prior edition (2023-24, revised): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/collection-rates-for-council-tax-and-non-domestic-rates-in-england-2023-to-2024 (published 19 June 2024, revised 13 September 2024)

Files downloaded (all ODS, into `data/`)

2024-25 edition:

Table 1 (national receipts, 2020-21 to 2024-25): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0aec76f68cc8414d5b84/Table_1_2024-25.ods
Table 2 (council tax collection rates): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0b036478525675738fff/Table_2_2024-25.ods
Table 3 (NNDR collection rates): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0b1b6478525675739000/Table_3_2024-25.ods
Table 4 (amount collected by class): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0b33a11f859994409234/Table_4_2024-25.ods
Table 5 (amount collected in year): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0bd2a11f859994409236/Table_5_2024-25.ods
Table 6 (per-authority collection amounts and rates, 2023-24 and 2024-25): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0be6a11f859994409237/Table_6_Council_Tax_and_non-domestic_rates_-_collection_amounts_and_rates__2023-24_and_2024-25.ods
Table 7 (council tax arrears and write-offs): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0bf66478525675739003/Table_7_2024-25.ods
Table 8 (NNDR arrears and write-offs): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0c078b3a37b63e73901c/Table_8_2024-25.ods
Table 9 (full per-authority QRC4 return, 2024-25 — the key per-council file, incl. arrears and write-offs by authority): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0c16e1a850d72c40920a/Table_9_Quarterly_return_of_Council_Tax_and_non-domestic_rates_QRC4__2024_to_2025.ods

2023-24 (revised) edition (per-authority tables only):

No CSVs are offered; ODS is the only machine-readable format on this release.

Granularity, coverage, period

Granularity: per billing authority (all English billing authorities, e.g. districts, unitaries, London/metropolitan boroughs) in Tables 6 and 9; Tables 1-5, 7-8 are England-level summaries with a 5-year time series.
Geographic coverage: England only (Scotland and Wales publish separately).
Period: financial years — latest file covers 2024-25 in-year collection plus arrears stock at 31 March 2025; Tables 1-3, 5, 7, 8 include five years back to 2020-21.

Refresh cadence

Annual, published each June for the financial year ending the previous March, usually with a revised edition a few months later (2023-24 was revised in September 2024). Next edition (2025-26) expected around June 2026; the 2025-26 statistics collection page already exists.

Re-download

curl -L -o data/Table_9_QRC4_2024-25.ods "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0c16e1a850d72c40920a/Table_9_Quarterly_return_of_Council_Tax_and_non-domestic_rates_QRC4__2024_to_2025.ods"
curl -L -o data/Table_6_2024-25.ods "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/688a0be6a11f859994409237/Table_6_Council_Tax_and_non-domestic_rates_-_collection_amounts_and_rates__2023-24_and_2024-25.ods"

(same pattern for the other asset URLs above).

Licence

Open Government Licence v3.0 (stated on the gov.uk release page).

Caveats

Figures are revised: each June release is typically superseded by a "revised" edition months later once late/corrected QRC4 returns arrive — the 2023-24 files here are the revised versions, the 2024-25 files are first-release (updated 30 July 2025) and may be revised.
In-year collection rate understates ultimate collection: councils continue collecting arrears in later years, so a low in-year rate is a cash-flow/efficiency signal, not final loss.
Local government reorganisation (unitarisation) changes the authority list between years; per-council time series need mapping across mergers.
A small number of authorities occasionally miss the return deadline; MHCLG imputes or footnotes them in the tables — check the notes sheets in each ODS.
Council tax support schemes differ by council and affect the collectable base, so raw collection rates are not fully like-for-like.