Kent Council Tax Arrears Soar to £199 Million as Nearly 40,000 Debts Are Referred to Bailiffs

Unpaid council tax across Kent’s 12 district councils has risen by almost £77 million in four years. More than half the outstanding debt dates back at least two years, £13.2 million is recorded as court and administration costs, and councils made nearly 40,000 bailiff referrals last year. Our investigation examines where the money is owed, how the debt keeps growing and what happens when people can’t pay.

A growing debt that won’t go away

Missing a council tax payment can be the beginning of a particularly unpleasant journey. A reminder arrives. The right to pay in instalments can be lost. A court summons may follow, bringing additional costs. Eventually, an unpaid bill can be passed to enforcement agents — better known as bailiffs.

Across Kent, those individual debts have become an extraordinary collective problem.

Figures analysed by The Shepway Vox Team reveal that Kent’s 12 district and borough councils were owed £199,025,000 in unpaid council tax at 31 March 2026. Four years earlier, the figure stood at approximately £122.2 million. That’s an increase of £76.8 million, or 62.9%, compared with a national increase of 49.5%.

And the amount being added each year is getting bigger.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, Kent’s outstanding balance increased by £11.7 million. The next year brought another £18.2 million, followed by £21.9 million. By March 2026, the annual increase had reached approximately £25 million.

These aren’t just this year’s unpaid bills. They’re debts accumulated over many years, including court and administration costs. Some balances may eventually be recovered; others may be written off because councils consider them uncollectable.

The debt, however, is still growing.

Five years, five increasingly uncomfortable figures

Combined year-end balances for Kent’s 12 councils. The earlier amounts are rounded; March 2026 uses the more precise published figures.

The figures, drawn from government council tax returns and research published by Council Tax Helpline, show four consecutive annual increases. They’re cash figures, so inflation, higher bills and more chargeable properties will account for part of the growth. They don’t, on their own, prove that more households are falling behind.

Kent Analytics provides another piece of the puzzle. Across the 12 districts, the unweighted average annual Band D council tax charge rose from approximately £1,983 in 2021/22 to £2,356 in 2025/26 — an 18.8% increase. Every district’s Band D charge was above the national average of £2,280 in 2025/26.

Higher bills mean more money to collect. But the question is whether councils are recovering older debts quickly enough to prevent the backlog growing.

More than £105 million dates back years

Buried within the £199 million is a particularly troubling detail.

Around £105.8 million — 53.2% of Kent’s outstanding council tax — relates to bills at least two years old. That’s our estimate, calculated by applying each council’s published percentage of older arrears to its outstanding balance.

In Thanet, approximately £22.3 million of the £34.3 million outstanding relates to these older bills. That’s 65% of the total.

Dover has around £11 million in older arrears, representing 61% of what it is owed. Canterbury and Gravesham each report 57%. Folkestone & Hythe’s proportion is considerably smaller, at 36%, equivalent to approximately £3.9 million.

This matters because a debt doesn’t necessarily disappear simply because another financial year begins. Someone who fell behind several years ago may still be trying to clear those bills while keeping up with today’s payments.

The figures don’t establish whether individual residents are facing that particular predicament. They do demonstrate how much of Kent’s unpaid council tax is rooted in earlier years.

And old debt raises difficult questions. How much is genuinely recoverable? How much is being repaid through affordable arrangements? And how much remains on council accounts despite repeated, unsuccessful attempts to collect it?

Those answers aren’t provided in the published figures.

A county divided by unpaid bills

The differences between Kent’s councils are enormous.

Thanet had £34.3 million outstanding at March 2026. That’s equivalent to £484 for every home in the district, compared with an England average of £286. Gravesham isn’t far behind, with £20.9 million outstanding, or £461 per home.

At the other end, Sevenoaks recorded £8 million, equivalent to £151 per home. Ashford stood at £176, Tonbridge & Malling at £174, and Folkestone & Hythe at £198. These averages divide each council’s total debt by all homes, including those whose occupants owe nothing. They aren’t the average debts of households in arrears.

Here’s a revealing contrast.

Kent Analytics reports that Sevenoaks had the highest average council tax charge per dwelling in 2025/26, at £2,486. Thanet had the lowest, at £1,685. Yet Thanet’s outstanding arrears per home were more than three times Sevenoaks’ figure.

That doesn’t establish why residents in one district are struggling more than those in another. Household incomes, discounts, historic debts, collection arrangements and the types of properties in each area all need examining.

But it certainly demonstrates that the size of the annual bill isn’t the whole story.

£13.2 million in costs — and £6.3 million written off

There’s another uncomfortable aspect to Kent’s council tax arrears.

The 12 councils reported approximately £13.2 million in court and administration costs included in their outstanding balances. Thanet accounts for £3.5 million, while Dover and Gravesham each report £1.9 million. That’s money recorded as recovery-related costs, not the council tax originally billed.

And even that £13.2 million requires caution. The government acknowledges that such costs may be under-reported because some authorities supply only the costs added during the latest year, rather than everything still outstanding from previous years.

Meanwhile, Kent’s councils reported writing off £6.3 million in council tax debt during 2025/26. Dartford accounted for £1.3 million, Gravesham £800,000 and Folkestone & Hythe £600,000. Write-offs remove debts councils regard as uncollectable; they’re separate from the £199 million still outstanding.

None of this proves councils have behaved improperly. Recovering unpaid tax costs money, and writing off genuinely unrecoverable debt is a legitimate accounting decision.

Nevertheless, residents deserve to know how much is being spent pursuing debts, how much councils actually recover and whether the methods used are proportionate.

Nearly 40,000 referrals to bailiffs

The picture becomes even more complicated when we introduce the Money Advice Trust’s Stop the Knock research.

Across Kent’s 12 district councils, referrals to enforcement agents rose from 31,604 in 2023/24 to 41,329 in 2024/25, before falling to 39,448 in 2025/26. That’s a 4.6% reduction in the latest year, even as outstanding arrears grew by approximately 14.4%.

Seven councils recorded rising debt alongside falling referrals. In Maidstone, referrals dropped 35.1% while outstanding arrears increased 19.7%. Folkestone & Hythe’s referrals fell 33.6%, although its arrears increased 13.4%. Canterbury’s outstanding debt increased 23%, despite referrals declining 11.2%.

Gravesham moved in the opposite direction. Its referrals increased from 6,148 to 9,073 — up 47.6% — while arrears rose 10.8%. The authority accounted for 23% of Kent’s recorded referrals. Earlier Money Advice Trust data notes that Gravesham was tendering for enforcement services during 2023/24, an important qualification when examining its longer-term trend.

Let’s be clear: a referral isn’t necessarily a bailiff visiting someone’s home, nor does every referral represent a different household. Several referrals can involve the same council tax account.

Equally, these figures don’t prove that using fewer bailiffs causes arrears to rise, or that using more reduces them.

What they show is that there isn’t a simple, consistent relationship between changing referral numbers and changing outstanding debts. To judge effectiveness, we’d need to know how much money enforcement agents actually recovered and how many households were affected.

What about people already struggling?

Kent Analytics recorded 100,208 Council Tax Support claimants across the 12 districts in the second quarter of 2025/26. Of those, 65,626 were working-age claimants and 34,582 were pension-age claimants. Council Tax Support helps qualifying low-income households by reducing their bills.

The Money Advice Trust’s returns indicate that none of Kent’s 12 councils had a blanket policy exempting Council Tax Support recipients from bailiff referrals. That doesn’t mean every claimant in arrears faced enforcement, or that councils lacked other protections for vulnerable residents.

Nevertheless, it raises an obvious question: how many people receiving help because of their financial circumstances were subsequently referred to bailiffs?

Government best-practice guidance encourages councils to consider affordable repayment arrangements, deductions from earnings or benefits where appropriate, and safeguards for vulnerable residents before resorting to enforcement agents.

We need the figures showing how those principles operate in Kent.

What happens next?

The government has acknowledged concerns about the speed and cost of council tax enforcement. In its response to a consultation published in 2026, it announced plans to give residents at least 63 days after a first missed payment before they lose the right to pay by instalments, alongside a proposed £100 cap on council costs for obtaining a liability order. The changes are intended for April 2027 and require legislation.

That’s a future reform, not an explanation of the arrears accumulated so far.

For Kent’s councils, the immediate questions are straightforward. How much of the £199 million is realistically recoverable? How much older debt is actually being collected? How many households repeatedly enter arrears? And what proportion of referrals to bailiffs results in payment rather than additional costs?

Council tax funds essential public services. Unpaid bills matter, and councils have a legitimate responsibility to collect what’s owed. But collection systems must also distinguish between those who won’t pay and those who simply can’t.

Five years ago, Kent’s unpaid council tax stood at £122 million. Today, it’s £199 million.

Another financial year will bring another round of bills. Without a clearer explanation of what’s driving the growing backlog — and whether recovery methods are working — residents and councillors alike will remain in the dark about how much of that money can ever be recovered.

The unpaid bills have been counted. Now it’s time to account for what happens to the people behind them.

NB: If you’re struggling to pay your council tax, don’t ignore the problem or wait for the situation to get worse. Contact your council as soon as possible to explain your circumstances and discuss an affordable repayment arrangement. Free, confidential and independent help is also available from the Money Advice Trust through its National Debtline service (0808 808 4000). If bailiffs are already involved, or you’ve received a warning about enforcement action, Council Tax Helpline’s Bailiff Advice Service (0800 494 7285) can help you understand your rights, what bailiffs can and cannot do, and your options for dealing with the debt. The sooner you seek help, the better your chances of avoiding further costs and unnecessary distress.

The Shepway Vox Team

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