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A Lib/Dem politician has slammed Liverpool City Council over its failure to collect a more than £23million in council tax that remains unpaid since 2009.
Cllr Tom Morrison, opposition spokesman on Finance and Resources, accused the Labour-ruled council of 'turning a blind eye' to the problem.
The disclosure about the level of uncollected tax came in a responses to a Freedom of Information question posed by a researcher.
Town hall officials revealed that there remains £11,931,737.20p uncollected for the calendar year 2010/11.
Despite promises that there would be a crack-down on tax dodgers that sum is slightly higher that the for year 2009/10 for which £11,450,854.01p remains uncollected.
Mr Morrison said: "This is a poor display from the council. They are failing to collect significant amounts of council tax, and what is worrying is that they seem to be complacent about it."
He said the revenue lost to the council was unacceptable and the failure to reduce the figure was a source for deep concern.
He added: "What would the manager of a football team do after losing 1-0?
"He doesn’t just let the same thing happen again. He makes serious efforts to ensure that the team trains harder and wins the next match.
"But clearly the team at Liverpool City Council is settling for defeat. These are huge loses and the council cannot afford top turn a blind eye to such unacceptable performance."
The FOI answers also show there have also been substantial failures in business rate collections.
The deficit for 2010/11 stands at £5,074,706.75p while the amount outstanding for 2009/10 is £4,304,315.42p
Mr Morrison said: "The government has tried and are trying to get more money from business rates, and so councils expand business rates to make more money.
"But it seems that yet again the Labour council is just missing the point. They seem to be largely ignoring the issue."
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: "The collection rate for council tax is 93% and for business rates it is 97%, which compares favourably with other big cities.
"We issue bills promptly and when instalments are not paid we issue reminders and encourage people to come and see us if they having difficulty paying.
"When people do not co-operate we will issue a summons and seek payment through the courts.
"We do not write off council tax debts and are constantly pursuing debtors to make sure we recoup as much as we can to spend on council services."
Labour Deputy Mayor Paul Brant said the figure "looks high" because Liverpool City Council is reluctant to write off bad debts.
Cabinet Member for Financce and Resources, Cllr Brant said: "Liverpool Council collected £127m Concil Tax last year compared to only £126m in the last year of Lib Dem control and the latest Government figures show we are in the top quartile for collection of business rates.
"However, with the return to a double dip recession under this Government, some businesses have gone bust or are unable to pay. There are always some uncollectable Council Tax figures, for example when people die with arrears.
"The arrears figure looks high because, unlike many Councils, Liverpool does not write-off arrears, and this brings in extra cash to fund services.
"We reduced the amount of overall Council Tax arrears to the Council by £8.7m last year alone, even getting money owed from the Poll Tax years.
"The message under Labour is that our performance has improved from where it was under the Lib Dems, and that we will not give up on collecting outstanding cash owed to the Council."
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