A leading trade union has called for ‘urgent reform' of local tax collection, after claiming that more than £1bn of council tax and business rates remain uncollected this year.

The GMB published figures on 2 February, estimating the amount of uncollected council tax in England currently stood at £612,458,780 for 2010/11, with uncollected business rates thought to be in the region of £409,371,840.