Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to introduce a statutory pre-action protocol to protect households who cannot pay council tax as a result of covid-19 related financial hardship from the re-imposition of bailiff visits on 23 August 2020.

The Department’s guidance on council tax collection makes clear that local authorities should take all reasonable steps to exhaust the options available to them prior to beginning enforcement action. This includes taking the individual circumstances of each billpayer into account, and agreeing an approach for dealing with vulnerable residents. Authorities should also signpost the availability of free to use debt advisers, and work with advisers to ensure that an affordable and sustainable payment plan is agreed, preventing the need for enforcement action. If enforcement action is considered appropriate after those checks, the guidance is clear that authorities should explore options such as deductions from benefits or an attachment of earnings order, prior to engaging enforcement agents.