Megan fell behind with repaying a council tax debt when payments stopped automatically coming out of her income support benefit following her return to work after having a child.

“It almost immediately went to the bailiffs, and it was a really severe situation. It’s a really scary time,” she said. “They would bash the door very loudly, which is very intimidating when you’re a single woman on your own … I hate that they do that to women”.

She set up a payment plan to get them to go away. “But I couldn’t afford it, it was crazy money and I was barely living and there was barely any food,” she adds. “So I had to stop paying. Then they started coming again.”

So Megan turned to payday loans – only to find herself in a predictable but unavoidable trap. Two and a half years later she has only just cleared her original council tax debt, which began at £700 but escalated to more than £1,100. Other debt taken on to pay back the council is still with her.

Megan’s story is just one of the tens of thousands that feature in the mounting pile of reports detailing the very personal impacts of the way local authorities collect taxes. Produced by leading charities and parliamentary committees, they demonstrate how the routine outsourcing of debt collection to private bailiffs pushes people into the hands of payday lenders, dark places and even prison.

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Various recommendations call for the government to take action on what should be blindingly obvious reforms; from creating a coherent complaints system to ensuring that the fees that are charged don’t incentivise more aggressive and punitive enforcement.

But, as toothless attempts at reform in 2014 showed, central government cannot be relied upon to introduce fair and effective methods of collecting the taxes cash-starved councils so desperately need.

Which is why local communities need to pressure councillors and mayors to use their powers to put a stop to the medieval practice of sending unaccountable profit-seeking firms to enforce debts that people just can’t pay. These methods add insult to injury when it comes to council tax, a regressive charge that sees the poorest paying disproportionately more than the richest.

Unlike how the blame for government austerity was legitimately deflected by local authorities, Labour-led councils in particular have no excuse not to use their power in this way.

There are signs of hope. Earlier this year the Bristol Cable, the member-owned magazine and media cooperative I work for, launched a campaign to #bootoutbailiffs. We joined forces with a wide range of people, from debt advisors, Methodist preachers, councillors and even former bailiffs.

We published investigations, harrowing personal stories, music videos, street art murals and compelling arguments for alternatives to make the case for debt collection that could help the financial needs of an austerity-battered council in a way that doesn’t further punish poor and working-class people.

The impacts on mental health, children and stress caused by debt and exacerbated by bailiffs are well-documented, but this isn’t just about bleeding hearts. Our investigations in Bristol showed that just 30% of the council tax debts passed to bailiffs are eventually collected.

Meanwhile the debt enforcement firms, including one part-owned by financiers closely linked to major donors to the Conservative party, add £310 in fees to the original debt within seven days of receiving it from the council.

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When you consider that councils used bailiffs 1.4 million times to collect council tax in 2016-2017, this is big money, and emblematic of policy failings that promote socially useless and predatory “businesses” that trap people in poverty.

In a neat, but all too rare, example of local democracy in action, Bristol has now become the second local authority, after Hammersmith and Fulham, to commit to piloting an ethical debt collection scheme, pledging to only use bailiffs as an absolute last resort.

This is a major breakthrough for a council that sets bailiffs on citizens on average a thousand times every month. It’s yet to be seen exactly how Bristol council will follow through, but Hammersmith and Fulham has completely stopped using bailiffs to collect council tax following the conclusion of a successful pilot in April. In a joint venture with self-styled ethical debt collectors Intrum, the London borough now emphasises early intervention and tailored affordable payment plans. It is already seeing better collection rates, even on debt that was previously sent back by bailiffs as uncollectible, and written off.

Bristol’s decision was publicly celebrated by the Children’s Society, StepChange Debt Charity, Z2K and the Money Advice Trust, which called for other councils to follow suit.

With the government signalling even more cuts to come in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it’s time for a locally rooted nationwide movement to demand that councils act in the best interests of residents, and boot out bailiffs from our communities for good.

• Adam Cantwell-Corn is co-founder of the Bristol Cable, a member-owned and led magazine redefining local journalism