A cash-strapped council faced with axing jobs in a bid to save almost £5m has revealed that it has written off more than £230,000 of irrecoverable debts, including unpaid tax bills.

Eastleigh Borough Council has put aside the annual debts, which it says are mostly for unpaid council tax and national non-domestic rates as well as housing benefit for the 2014/2015 year.

The decision comes just weeks after the council confirmed a budget that reduces its spending on services next year by £1.5m.

As previously reported the council is looking to save £4.7m over the next five years and has not ruled out job losses.

Bosses are yet to decide where the axe on services will fall but all departments have been asked to look at what services they would prioritise and where savings could be made and more income be generated.

The debt being written off is made up of 550 debts of less than £2,000 totalling £24,000, 89 written-off debts due to bankruptcy or liquidation totalling £197,080 and four debts above £2,000 totalling more than £10,000.

In several of the cases involving sums above £2,000 the council tax payer could not be traced.

Council staff have assessed the debts and judged them irrecoverable, as any further efforts to recover them would be “counter-productive and uneconomical”, a council report said.

However, action can still be taken if a debtor is traced later, they say.

The figure is less than last year when council chiefs wrote off debts of £385,087.

The report added: “The financial implications of write-offs for council tax and housing benefit debts fall on the council tax payer, which is why every effort to recover debts is made before this action is taken.

“When setting the level of council tax each year provision is made for bad debts.”

Council deputy leader Councillor Anne Winstanley said that the council had “no choice” but insisted that it would do what it could to recover some if not all of the outstanding money.