More than £700,000 of commercial rent owed to Walsall Council remains uncollected, it has emerged.

Figures showed the outstanding level of debt owed by businesses operating in local authority owned property stood at £710,000 – around £213,000 of which was more than a year old.

Walsall Labour group leader Matt Ward said it was ‘shocking’ more action hadn’t been taken to claw back what was owed in light of  cuts approved as part of the latest budget.

A spokesperson for Walsall Council said the operated a “robust” rent collection system and worked with companies experiencing genuine hardship or escalating cases for enforcement where necessary. Councillor Ward said:

“I expected it to be high but I didn’t expect that much. The frustrating thing for me is there are loads of cuts (in the budget) and we can’t even get our act together collecting rent.

“I think they should be ashamed of it. The cabinet member should resign over it. We’re cutting vital services because he’s not being proactive enough in taking enforcement.”

“If this was council tax, we’d have sent in bailiffs. I know businesses who haven’t paid in more than eight months and they are still allowed to operate without paying rent and ultimately it’s the taxpayers who have to carry the burden.

“If this was any other private landlord with a commercial property, they’d start legal proceedings if rent hadn’t been paid within seven days.

“We’ve let it go on and on. There should be more enforcement, we have a right to collect that rent. Some of this debt could have saved some council services.”

A council spokesperson said, “The council works proactively to reduce this debt whilst also working with tenants to ensure that debt recovery plans are issued and adhered to in cases of genuine hardship.

“The council operates a robust rent collection and arrears recovery action plan under the legislative parameters that each commercial lease offers.

“This includes active debt recovery management via the review of a monthly debt record in conjunction with the income and collections team, escalation to recovery where appropriate, and the use other of other recovery options as dictated by commercial leases, such as legal recovery via court and enforcement action, CRAR (Commercial Rental Arrears Recovery) where appropriate, and forfeiture (eviction) in a small number of cases.”