Fife Council Budget: Labour unveils its plans for Council Tax and rent rises

It includes an 8.2% increase in Council Tax and a 6% rent hike for council tenants - but no cuts are proposed for education as previously feared.

The proposals come ahead of Thursday's debate at Fife House in Glenrothes. If the administration's plans are approved, the increases would come into effect from April 1.

“We’re back to looking at a significant gap between what we have to spend to keep services running at the current level and how much money we’re bringing,” Council Leader David Ross (Labour) said.

The proposed 8.2% Council Tax increase is lower than the 10% rise that Cllr Ross initially predicted, but nonetheless is higher than previous increases.

He partially blamed the Council Tax freeze last year which the Scottish Government mandated for all 32 Scottish councils. He also blamed the pressures around health and social care's budgets for the steep rise.

“This has been one of the hardest budgets we’ve had for a long time,” Cllr Ross said. “We know asking people to pay more on Council Tax is going to have an impact for families, but cutting back on vital local services is going to have more of an impact – particularly on the most vulnerable. We’re trying to get the balance right.”

The administration is not proposing any cuts to the £457 million education budget this year, and it has rejected proposals to cut the number of Pupil Support Assistants (PSAs) and to reduce school transport mileage.

Cllr Ross said: “We recognise across Scotland there is a problem with behaviour in schools and PSAs are on the frontline of that.”

Although there are no specific cuts for education, the Labour proposals would ask all services – including education – to reduce budgets by 0.5% in the coming year. Those efficiencies would save the council £4 million in total.

The Labour budget is also proposing to invest more money into health and social care services upfront this year.

If approved, Fife Council would be passing the 2.3% funding uplift from the Scottish Government along to the Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and topping it off with an additional £5.5 million in investment.

“That’s probably the major reason we’re having to put Council Tax up,” Cllr Ross said. “That extra £5.5 million equates to about 2.8% of the increase. If we didn’t have significant overspends in health and social care, we could have kept Council Tax down.”

Fife's Health & Social Care Partnership has already overspent its budget by £34 million this year, and that number is likely to grow. It is also already anticipating a £14 million gap by March 2026.

The council will also have to balance the books for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) next week.

“To be a responsible custodian of the HRA – to keep it stable and to make sure tenant priorities could go forward – we’ve had to propose a rent increase of 6%,” Councillor Judy Hamilton, housing spokesperson, said.

Although tenants voted for a 5% increase during the consultation period, Cllr Hamilton said they also identified new build housing and housing improvements as their top two priorities.

In order to make those investments and continue building new houses, Cllr Hamilton said the council must set rents at a 6% increase this year.

Fife Council is due to set its budget on February 20.