Cheshire East is being urged to sign up to the Councils for Fair Tax Declaration in a bid to exclude tax-avoiding companies from its procurement process.

Neighbouring Cheshire West and Chester is one of 25 local authorities across the UK to have signed up to the declaration so far.

Cllr Phil Williams (Alsager, Lib Dem) has now put forward a motion to next week's meeting of the full council calling on Cheshire East to do the same.

Cllr Phil Williams

The report to go to Wednesday's (October 19) meeting, states that by signing up councils commit to do what they can to encourage fair tax practices among supplier companies when buying goods and services.

The declaration also calls for more powers to exclude companies with links to tax havens from the council's procurement processes.

"Research commissioned by the Fair Tax Foundation from DatLab reveals that between 2014 and 2019 some 17.5 per cent of UK public procurement contracts were won by businesses with connections to a tax haven," states Cllr Williams, in the report to next week's meeting.

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"Those contracts were worth a combined value of £37.5bn. Furthermore, the UK loses an estimated £17bn in corporation tax revenues as a result of profit shifting alone.

"Recent polls show that two thirds of people questioned believe that the government and local councils should consider a company's ethics and how they pay their tax alongside criteria such as value for money or quality of service when awarding contracts."

Cllr Nick Mannion has seconded the motion

The full motion, which is seconded by Cllr Nick Mannion (Lab) states: "Recognising that Cheshire East Council already meets some of the requirements of the Fair Tax Declaration, council resolves to sign-up to the declaration in its entirety."