Flintshire Council to Write Off £67,250 Business Rates Debt After Soap Firm Liquidation

Flintshire Council plans to cancel a £67,250 business rates debt after a soap manufacturer entered liquidation earlier this year. The council cabinet met on Tuesday to consider the write-off for Westminster Worldwide Trading. The company produced handmade soap products at Chester Employment Park and had operated from the site for more than a decade.

House filings show the business owed £229,408 when it collapsed. Employees were owed £131,484 in total and HMRC was owed £57,370 in unpaid taxes. The company held just £8,100 in cash at the time of liquidation. The firm entered Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation on February 27, 2025.

Leonard Curtis Insolvency Practitioners was appointed to oversee the process. By May the premises had been cleared and the lease terminated on May 6.

Council officers recommended the write-off after determining there was no prospect of recovering the debt through the insolvency process. Gareth Owens, Flintshire Council’s chief officer for governance, said evidence gathering delayed the initial demand notice until January 2025.

"No further recovery action could be initiated before the insolvency commenced," Mr Owens said. Liquidators confirmed unsecured creditors would receive no dividend. The loss will not affect Flintshire Council’s budget directly because business rates flow into Wales’s National Collection Pool and are redistributed among councils.