Bradford Council is owed more than £31 million by the district’s taxpayers.

A report to the Council’s executive next week reveals that by March 31 this year, it had collected 93.6 per cent of council tax in 2009/10, leaving accumulated arrears of £25.4 million.

A total of 97.1 per cent of non-domestic rates were collected, leaving arrears of £5.7 million.

In the same period, the Council used £14.6 million of reserves to fund services.

Council leader Ian Greenwood said: “It’s obviously a worry but to be fair, in a situation where many people are under financial stress, it’s more difficult to collect the rates.

“Ninety-three per cent is the vast majority of the council tax, but there are obviously some people under stress.

“The Council should deal with those people in the way that allows them the best way to pay possible but obviously those refusing to pay, the Council must pursue them.”

A Leeds City Council spokesman said its collection rate for the last financial year was 96.5 per cent with arrears of £8.9 million. He said it continued to collect arrears after the financial year and its overall collection rate was 99 per cent.

A Kirklees Council spokesman said its collection rate was 95.6 per cent leaving arrears of £6.37 million.

A Bradford Council spokesman said arrears continued to be collected after the end of the financial year with more than 98.5 per cent of debt collected.

Coun Greenwood, whose Labour group has the largest number of councillors, criticised the former Tory-run administration of using corporate reserves to shore up council services.

He said: “What the Council has been doing is living off its one-off payments and reserves for the last few years and we are going to hit the buffers.”

The Financial Outturn 2009/10 report sates the Council made a net revenue underspend of £2.336m against a budget of £420.5m in the last financial year.

Coun Greenwood said he was still waiting for the financial situation his group inherited to be fully explained.

“It’s unbelievable at this stage, but we are not clear what that represents,” he said. “But whether it’s committed money we have in the bank we are not clear at this moment in time, which demonstrates a complete lack of financial control the previous administration had over the Council spending.”

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Conservative group leader, said: “The reference made to the underspend by Ian Greenwood is merely a smokescreen to cover for the monumental financial calamity produced by Gordon Brown and the Labour party over the last ten years.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: “I’m astonished at Councillor Greenwood’s remarks on the lack of financial control given that Councillor Greenwood has been sitting on the audit committee of the Council for the last couple of years.”