Citizens Advice response to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s consultation: Improving enforcement of council tax
In 2025, around 80,000 people came to Citizens Advice for help with council tax arrears in England. Council tax debt is the second most common debt we help people with year on year. The amount of debt that people who’ve come for help with council tax arrears is still on the rise, in June 2026 the average debt was £1,766 (in England and Wales). This is an increase of 38%, or nearly £500, from the same period in 2022.
The current approach to collecting and enforcing council tax is not working, debts are growing and people are falling into arrears without the support they need. We welcome the government’s commitments to extending the timeframe before councils can take enforcement action, putting in place statutory steps that councils must take before enforcement action.
However, currently the government has council tax collection guidance in place, but we still see harmful processes that are plunging people into financial hardship and people’s circumstances being disregarded in favour of aggressive enforcement tactics. Supportive processes which seek to engage people early and use appropriate collection practices are not universally applied. This postcode lottery must end.
We’re pleased to respond to the government’s consultation on improving the enforcement of council tax. Our full response to this consultation can be found in the attached document.
In particular, we recommend that the government:
Puts in place a statutory pre-action protocol which sets out the steps councils must follow, before taking enforcement action, to engage people early and follow supportive processes which are tailored to people’s circumstances. The government must establish a requirement on councils to follow the guidance it has committed to develop, to embed consistent support and practice across the country.
Requires councils to send at least 2 reminder notices before they issue a final notice.
Encourages councils to focus on engaging people early after a missed payment, remove barriers to engagement, and put in place supportive processes which are appropriate to people’s circumstances and needs.
Commits to uprate the attachment of earnings income thresholds as a matter of urgency.