Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information his Department holds on the number of referrals made by local authorities to enforcement agents for the collection of council tax debt in (a) England, (b) Thurrock, (c) Basildon and (d) Essex in the last 12 months.

The government does not collect data on the number of households which have missed council tax payments or data on the actions councils take to recover these debts. The government expects councils to proportionate in the actions they take to recover debts and sympathetic to those in hardship.