Dear Mr Gill

Re: - Request for Information - FOI/COR/CTAX/6046

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 30 September 2009 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In response to your request, I have summarised the information as follows with your request in italics:

Please could you supply me with details of the number of Manchester City Council residents that have had bankruptcy proceedings taken against them for council tax arrears and whether all the cases were successful or not.

Manchester City Council has passed 1,444 cases for insolvency proceedings. This has led to 1,267 statutory demands being served, 945 petitions being issued and 433 being made bankrupt.

Was the bankruptcy option taken as a last resort, or were all other recovery methods explored first?

Please find the Council's policy document on the use of bankruptcy proceedings.

Also, I would appreciate it if you could tell me how many of these were homeowners/mortgage payers. "

1,427 were homeowners.

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review.  If you wish to complain you should contact me in the first instance.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Charles Metcalfe

Revenues Manager