The decision to stop using bailiffs to chase council tax debt from the city’s most vulnerable families is a very welcome one.

It was five years ago that a council backbench committee investigated the use of bailiffs and heard some harrowing accounts of disabled, elderly and those with young children being harassed, bullied and relentlessly pursued by bully bailiffs.

Among them a person in hospital with cancer who had been chased after missing payments and other mother of three afraid to answer the front door. Bailiffs regularly ignored rules set by the council, turning up at homes at midnight for example.

And of course the debt was also massively increased with bailiffs fees and court fees, making the struggle to pay that much harder.

A study of child poverty earlier this year found the debt enforcers were called in too quickly and asked the council to give people three weeks grace to seek advice and make payment arrangements. Giving breathing space and expert debt advice is a much better way to ensure the tax is paid without piling on the misery.

Other local authorities who refuse to engage bailiffs have not struggled to struggle to meet their council tax collection targets.

The council is only banning use of bailiffs for those receiving council tax support. They are already recognised as being on the bread line and adding to their stress and debt does not help.

Others who can afford it and wilfully refuse will still get a knock at the door - hopefully from one of the bailiffs who follows their code of conduct - to ensure that they pay their fair share of tax.

Sorting those who can’t pay from those who won’t pay is crucial to making this work.