CIVEA to encourage debt landscape discussions at GovDebt 2022.

CIVEA to encourage debt landscape discussions at GovDebt 2022.

Welcoming over 200 public sector debt professionals, GovDebt brings together government finance, debt and risk professionals to review the UK public sector finance and debt landscape. The annual conference aims to help attendees develop and improve strategies to collect debt responsibly and efficiently by exploring new techniques, learning from leading case studies and hearing from high-level keynote speakers.

The event will be chaired by Russell Hamblin-Boone, Chief Executive Officer of CIVEA, the primary trade association for civil enforcement agencies in England & Wales representing more than 95% of the industry. Paul Whyte, CIVEA President will be a guest speaker.

Paul will be hosting a talk on enforcement - pre and post-2014, giving his own perspective on lessons learned from the evolution of the industry and discussing the successes that have been seen by adopting new communication techniques.

GovDebt 2022 is being held on Tuesday 11^th October at etc. venues St Paul’s in London and will focus on public sector debt management, recovery and resolution. Some of the other key topics discussed will be the cost-of-living challenge and how debt management is changing in response, ongoing assessment of vulnerability, encouraging access to debt advice, how cross-government collaboration works, the use of data when creating solutions, and the benefits of utilising currently available technology.

Earlier this year, CIVEA published a report explaining how the landscape of enforcement has evolved in response to social and economic change. CIVEA provided insight to MPs at the House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Select Committee inquiry into Council Tax collection, supported by an analysis by Europe Economics; a leading economic research specialist, which found that without enforcement agents an additional 7 million households would default on their council tax payments leading to a shortfall of up to £12 billion.

On chairing GovDebt 2022, Russell Hamblin-Boone said, “GovDebt 2022 promises to be a fascinating event at a critical time for public finance. Post-pandemic, we are seeing more and more enforcement firms and councils adopt successful approaches where collection rates are not the only measure of success.

“That said, with over 4 billion pounds of council tax alone still left uncollected and the likely combined cost and loss of revenue from the pandemic being as high as £10bn, it is vital local services continue to be properly funded. The conference will wrestle with the dilemma of resolving debt problems for families while maintaining government revenue streams...”

Places at GovDebt 2022 remain available and can be secured by visiting www.gov-debt.co.uk

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

CIVEA is the principal trade association representing civil enforcement agencies employing around 2000 certificated enforcement agents that operate in England and Wales. CIVEA represents 40 companies that make up over 95% of the entire enforcement industry.

CIVEA’s members work to enforce civil debt on behalf of local authorities and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) including council tax, business rates, parking fines, magistrates’ court fines, employment tribunal awards, child support payments, B2B and commercial rent arrears. This amounts to over half a billion pounds of unpaid taxes and fines recovered each year at no cost to the public bodies themselves. Each year CIVEA members receive over 3.5 million warrants and court orders.

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