Councils could save almost £14m a year if council tax payments are made through direct debit, according to a new campaign.
A local authority campaign encouraging people to pay council tax through direct debit has resulted in savings of almost £600,000 this summer. According to Bacs Payment Schemes Limited, if all councils adopted this mode of payment, they could save millions of pounds a year.
Dawneth Perry from Bacs said: ‘Direct debit saves more than £3bn for UK businesses every year, and it’s time councils took full advantage of that, too, to take some pressure off their own stretched budgets.
‘Switching the way people pay council tax may not fill the entire gap left by the government cutbacks but it can go some way to making up the loss in funding.’