Council Tax proposals: Fife councillors  want rethink over plan to hike charges

The Scottish Government and COSLA - the national association of Scottish councils - are currently consulting local authorities across Scotland on “a fairer council tax system.” If the proposals in are implemented, charges for approximately 28% of all Scottish properties will increase.

Labour councillor Altany Craik, spokesperson for finance, economy and strategic planning called the proposals an unfair and lazy attempt at finding more money for local government.

Fife's cabinet committee response took a firm stance against plans, but said that if they come into effect they should be phased in slowly.

Councillor James Calder (Dunfermline South,Lib-Dem) led an amendment calling for the council to take a definitive and strong stance, emphasising the cost ofl lving impacts, the need for a fairer system of local taxation and a better funding formula from the Scottish Government for Councils. It received unanimous cross-party support.

He said: “There seems to be a difference between what the local SNP councillors are saying and what the government are saying. It’s very positive that the council took a united front in saying no to these proposals.The Scottish Government needs to take stock of that. It really needs to bring it all back to the drawing board and look at a fairer alternative.”

Holyrood has set out tax hikes for higher banded properties from April 2024 and is seeking input from local authorities. The consultation concerns council tax charges - also known as multipliers - for properties in higher valuation Bands E to H.

Currently, households in the lowest banded property (band A) pay around 3.96% per year in terms of property value whereas those in the highest banded property (band H) pay around 1.45% per year. If the government proposals are implemented, charges for Band E would increase by 7.5%; Band F by 12.5%; Band G by 17.5%; and Band H by 22.5%.

“The gist of the response is that we don’t want these increases to go ahead but if they were to go ahead, then they should be phased in over the next three years,” Councillor David Ross, leader of the minority Labour administration, explained. “The fact that we’re looking at these proposals is the result of the failure to reform or replace the unfair council tax and a failure to properly fund local government and services by the Scottish Government.”

He continued: “What we have is this proposed tinkering around the edges as a way of finding money for local government and making council tax payers pay for those failures.”

Committee members agreed that the banding and valuation of properties is not a very good indicator of wealth or income.

Cllr Ross expressed particular concern for young families and pensioners.

“Some councils around the country are in such dire straits that they see this as the only way of getting extra money to sustain its services but that doesn’t mean it's right,” he said. “I hope the government sees sense in terms of rethinking these proposals.”