MORE Bradford residents have been jailed for failing to pay their Council Tax than in any other local authority area in England and Wales, a study has revealed.

A total of 18 people were imprisoned during the past financial year in the Bradford district, according to a study that was part of a report by PayPlan and the IMA.

The report also claimed that Bradford Council "took court action seeking prison sentences against nearly 1,000 householders" for non-payment in the past year - also higher than any other area.

But a Council spokesperson said: “The figures describe the total number of actions taken and not the number of households against whom we have taken action, which is a much smaller number.

“In the past year there have been 151 new individual cases, the remaining 818 are returning cases which include people who may have had multiple court appearances or be cases from previous years. The vast majority of council taxpayers in Bradford pay their council tax. And in an age when the Government are cutting all their grant to local authorities every penny counts. So where people do not pay, then we have no choice but to pursue payment so that the council has enough funding to cover the cost of council services. Bradford Council has one of the lowest council tax band charges in the country.

“Where people are genuinely in financial difficulty and let us know this, we are able to support them by giving them information, guidance and advice. The council pays £2.7 million a year to the Voluntary Sector to provide advice.

“In spite of everyone's efforts, inevitably there are a small number of Council Tax payers each year who refuse to pay, leaving the Council with little option than to pursue the last resort, enforcement action in the form of applying to the Magistrates for action. This is not as a punishment for non – payment, but to secure payment of the debt. In those cases where the Magistrates impose a prison sentence, it is often the case that the debt is paid to avoid the sentence being served.

"We are committed to supporting Council Tax Payers who have difficulty paying, but we are also mindful of the duty to pursue those who won't pay not least to be fair to Council Tax payers who regularly pay in full and on time.”

The study said that, although non-payment of Council Tax is not a crime, there has been a rise of more than 10 per cent in the number of people taken to court by councils for the matter in the past three years.

James Price, campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said tax evasion was a legal matter but called on Bradford Council to reflect on possible reasons behind the high number of prosecutions.

He said: “Anyone who is accused of tax evasion should be dealt with through the legal system, but if one place is seeing so many cases, it may well be that Council Tax is just too high."

George Williamson, from Bradford People’s Assembly, said: “The fact that Bradford Council is reducing help available for people to pay their Council Tax when a damning report shows that they take legal proceedings against more people that any other local authority is very hard to stomach.

"Bradford Council is bit by bit taking more help away from the most vulnerable whilst it spends money on non-essential projects.”