Labour Throw £2.13 Million of Taxpayers’ Money Down the Drain

• A Lib Dem FOI has found that from June 2015 to June 2025, Labour have written off over £2,130,000 in bad debt for rent owed to the City Council from its commercial rental portfolio.
• This amounts to £584 each day over 10 years — money that could have been spent employing more street cleaners and traffic wardens.
• Cllr Carl Cashman: “It’s startling that the Council wrote off so much rent owed — this is money that could have been put back into frontline services and our communities.”

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by Liberal Democrat campaigner Kevin Robinson-Hale found that between 1st June 2015 and 1st June 2025, Liverpool City Council wrote off £2,134,581.90 in “bad debt” owed to the City Council on council-owned commercial property.

This works out at £584 per day over the 10 years. The Liberal Democrats argue that this is money that could have otherwise been put into vital frontline services — like street cleaning.

The FOI did not give any details of what properties or companies had bad debt written off, or whether any of them had links to councillors, past or present.

Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr Carl Cashman was clear that his party would prioritise getting debts collected early and avoid writing off commercial debt where possible. He argued that the Council has a duty to taxpayers to recover money owed.

Kevin Robinson-Hale, Lib Dem campaigner in Everton West, said: 

“Communities like mine here in Everton always seem to lose out — whether it’s Section 106 money from developers or land given away for free. And now over £2.13 million just wiped clean like that? It makes you wonder where it’s gone and who’s benefitting from it.
 We need a Council that won’t give away public funds like that, but will stand up and deliver for communities like Everton.”

Cllr Carl Cashman, Leader of the Liverpool Liberal Democrats, said: 

“If a business was throwing £584 of money owed to it into the bin each day for over 10 years, you’d be shocked that it was still going — but that’s essentially what Labour have been doing. The Council needs to do more to improve collection rates, collect more money earlier, and prevent it from being written off. At the end of the day, that’s money that could be better spent on public services — not giving businesses a free pass.”