Nearly £15 million of council tax was left uncollected in Sussex last year.

While the biggest shortfall was in Brighton and Hove, the largest proportion of unpaid tax was in Hastings.

The Conservatives used the release of national figures to attack councils for failing to collect tax at the same time as their services faced the axe due to funding cuts.

Brighton and Hove City Council was itself Tory-led when its backlog of uncollected tax hit £4 million in 2009, improving to £3.6 million in the last financial year.

The council welcomed the improvement - meaning the proportion of bills paid rose from 96.5% to 96.9% - and said it would recover more of last year's unpaid tax.

A spokesman said: “Collection doesn't stop at the end of the year. We go on pursuing unpaid council tax until every avenue is exhausted and ultimately we currently expect to collect at least 98.5% of the whole council tax liability.”

He said the council has the biggest shortfall because of its size and because of the type of people living in the city.

He said: “In comparative terms the population of this city is transient and there is a high proportion of private sector rented properties.

“Both of these factors make in-year collection less achievable that in a district with a more stable population.”

Nationally the amount of council tax not collected by local authorities totalled £612.4 million. Hastings Borough Council improved the proportion of council tax it collected from 96.1% to 96.4% but still had the lowest rate in the county.

The biggest improvement was in Worthing, where nearly £400,000 more was collected, bringing the rate from 97.5% to 98.3%.

Council leader Paul Yallop said a deliberate effort had been made to crack down on non-payers.

He said: “I believe those that pay should not be subsidising those that don't.

“We work very hard to make sure everyone pays so it's fair to everybody.”

Lewes, Adur, Arun, Crawley and Mid Sussex councils all improved, while Wealden District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council both collected slightly less.

The figures come after The Argus revealed Sussex councillors had been chased by their own officials for failing to pay their taxes. More than a dozen councillors were given reminders from their local authorities for late payment of council tax in the past two years, and one was issued with a court summons.

Fly-tipping incidents by council

Council

Total uncollected council
tax(£)

Percentage collected

Brighton 3.6m 96.9 Lewes 889,000 98.4 Horsham 1.03m 98.7 Mid Sussex 1.3m 98.4 Worthing 865,000 98.3 Hastings 1.34m 96.4 Adur 720,000 97.6 Hastings 1.18m 98.3 Eastbourne 1.26m 97.5 Wealden 1.87m 98 Rother 866,000 98.4