As the Barnet Borough Council officer ultimately responsible for the council’s finances, I would like to reassure readers of two things concerning the council’s use of bailiffs to collect outstanding debts (‘My throat ended up in my stomach’, Hendon Times, September 11).

1. We use bailiffs to collect unpaid council tax or business rates as a last resort. They would not be used, for instance, if a business or resident was keeping up payments on an agreed late payment plan.

2. The council, however, is assiduous in chasing up bad debts on behalf of the taxpayer. Although the council does not set business rates – these are set by central government – we are responsible for ensuring that this tax is collected.

The vast majority of residents and businesses pay their council tax and business rates promptly, and I always recommend that everyone set up a direct debit to ensure payment does not fall behind.

A customer receives a number of recovery notices from Barnet at each stage prior to any referral to the bailiffs. At any stage there is an opportunity to make a suitable payment arrangement, before the debt is passed to the enforcement agents. An enforcement agent will only attend if there has been no contact following the notice of enforcement letters or if a payment arrangement has been broken.

Using bailiffs in the borough has recovered £3.6million of unpaid tax in 2013-14 and ensured our collection rates of both business rates and council tax remains above 98 per cent. To put this into context, not collecting this money would see council tax rise by 2.5 per cent.

Chris Naylor

Chief operating officer and Section 151 officer London Borough of Barnet