Friday March 6th 2026
Edinburgh City Chambers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Almost £4.7m in debt deemed uncollectable over the last financial year is set to be written off by Edinburgh Council.
High up on the list is £205,535 in unpaid LEZ charges – almost 20% of the £1.07m total amount in penalty charges for the area successfully collected by the council.
Another £1.14m in unpaid parking and bus lane PCNs are to be written off, too, some 9.63% of the nearly £11.9m collected.
Overall, the write offs amount to 0.3% of the value of a variety of council debts, charges and taxes, versus 0.1% in the previous year.
Officers stated in a report to councillors that much of the increase was due to changes in rules around how some types of debt are handled.
Edinburgh’s finance convener said properly servicing debt was ‘a normal part of sound financial management’, and that the city has a ‘very low’ write off level.
Much of the increase versus last year comes from sundry debt, miscellaneous debts owed to the council.
A total of £1.73m in sundry debt is to be written off versus £132.3m worth of charges collected on – 1.31% of the total versus 0.19% last year.
The report stated that the increase was due to a change in rules as to how many of the debts that fall under that category are handled.
Councillors will have the opportunity to review the write offs at next Thursday’s finance committee meeting.
It represents a hike from last year, when 6.6% of the value of parking and bus lane PCNs collected were written off.
The report points to an increase in the value of parking charges as the reason, as well as increasing difficulties in tracing drivers.
Finance convener and Labour councillor Mandy Watt said: “Here in Edinburgh, we have a very low annual write off level for debt. For 2024/25, this figure represents only 0.3% of overall income levels.
“Debts are only written off when all possible methods of recovery have been exhausted and if formal legal action wouldn’t be deemed appropriate.”
Some £204,980 in council tax debts are to be written off, out of a total take of almost £446.8m, as well as £614,713 in non-domestic rates out of a total income of £412.1m.
They represent 0.05% and 0.15% of the collected totals throughout the year respectively, versus 0.04% and 0.09% in 2024/25.
Housing benefit overpayment at a value of £672,825 is to be written off, out of a total take of £168.5m – 0.4% of the total collected. It marks an increase from 0.25% the previous year.
And salary overpayments to the tune of £82,642 are set to be done away with, 0.02% of the value of £400m which was paid – a drop from 0.03% last year.
The report states that the council may begin chasing written-off debts again if new information about debtors becomes available.
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