Rotherham Councillor calls for end of bailiff use after 5,587 council tax debt visits
Rotherham Council referred 4,565 council tax cases to enforcement agents during 2025/26, with agents carrying out 5,587 visits on its behalf.
Last updated 13 hours ago
A councillor for a number of Rotherham’s most deprived areas has called for the council to stop using bailiffs to recover unpaid council tax after enforcement agents made more than 5,500 visits last year.
Rotherham Council referred 4,565 council tax cases to enforcement agents during 2025/26, with agents carrying out 5,587 visits on its behalf.
The council said the visits included cases relating to debts from previous years and, in some cases, multiple visits to the same property.
During the visits, 476 cases of vulnerability were identified and returned to the council to consider whether further support or an alternative method of recovering the debt was appropriate.
Cllr Michael Bennett-Sylvester, who uncovered the figures after raising the issue at a full council meeting, has called for the authority to stop using enforcement agents altogether.
He said: “I don’t think we should be using bailiffs anymore. 476 cases have been handed back to the council from bailiffs as they were vulnerable. Why aren’t we identifying them as vulnerable first?
“People don’t necessarily understand what’s being sent to them. We should condemn barbaric systems like this.”
Cllr Bennett-Sylvester described the use of bailiffs as ineffective and said the council should instead focus on alternatives including earlier intervention.
Government figures show council tax arrears across England reached £7.4bn at the end of March 2026, up £782m in a year. Of the £6.6bn already outstanding at the beginning of 2025/26, councils collected £1bn – 15.7 per cent – during the year.
However, those figures cover council tax arrears generally and do not show how much was recovered specifically through enforcement agents.
The Government is currently reforming council tax enforcement, with proposals aimed at giving households more opportunity to engage with councils and access support before formal enforcement begins. It has acknowledged that councils can struggle to identify vulnerable residents before enforcement action and that, in some cases, vulnerabilities only become apparent following a bailiff visit.
However, ministers have stopped short of proposing an end to bailiffs. The Government says councils have a duty to recover council tax and should retain enforcement agents as an option where necessary, while acting proportionately and sympathetically towards people in hardship.
Rotherham Council also defended its approach.
Cabinet member for finance and community safety, Councillor Saghir Alam, said: “The council has an obligation to collect all council tax due, and the use of enforcement agents is one method available.
“Before the council refers any debt to enforcement agents it has already pursued other means of collection. A referral is made where a customer does not engage with the council after a liability order has been obtained.”
Cllr Alam said cases where vulnerability was identified were returned to the council to establish whether further support was needed and whether another method of recovery would be more appropriate.