MORE than £500,000 of irrecoverable debt has been written off by Renfrewshire Council – a situation labelled “so concerning” against a challenging financial backdrop for local authorities.

The step has been taken as the recovery of debt from a number of individuals and companies was no longer considered “viable”.

An eye-watering £561,102.70 was authorised for write-off by members of the finance, resources and customer services policy board on Thursday.

Councillor Alison-Ann Dowling, Labour group finance spokesperson, said: “I think it’s vital that we demonstrate publicly to our constituents that we are doing everything in our power to minimise the debt levels that have been built up for the business accounts.

“It’s so concerning when we’re having to look at saving every penny when quite substantial public monies have to be written off like this.

“I think it would be really helpful if the officers could speak to how this figure compares to last year, which I believe is much improved, and to give reassurance that all measures are being taken, not only to support those who have built up debt but also that we’re doing all that we can to mitigate any potential fraudulent activities by businesses who rack up unpaid business rates year after year.”

Emma Shields, the council’s strategic service delivery manager, confirmed the figures were “lower” than the corresponding period last year – at which point just over £1.5million was written off by the board.

She added: “At each point when we bring these write-offs, we always go back and look and see if there’s anything else we could’ve done in these cases but also is there anything else we could be doing moving forward.

“We’re always looking for solutions to see if we can identify trends and patterns, anything that we can do that triggers any early interventions that we can make and working closely with our debt recovery partners to do that.

“We’re consistently doing that and recognising that these are debts that we’re having to write off, they’re substantial debts and we want to make sure that as far as possible we’re making every attempt to collect that revenue that’s due.

“But also where there’s support potentially available, whether that’s individual customers for council tax or businesses, if there’s council tax reduction support, that we’re trying to do that.”

Financial regulations require a report on the write-off of sums in excess of £10,000 be submitted to the board for consideration.

A report said the council had already “pursued” the debts in question before adding that it was now “considered prudent” to write off the outstanding balance.

The debts covered housing benefit overpayments, council tax, sundry debtors and non-domestic rates.