HOUSEHOLDS in every part of Scotland will be hit with the biggest council tax hikes for decades — destroying SNP claims huge rises were not needed.
All 32 local authorities will hammer families — with increases of up to 15.6 per cent — after being crippled by years of cash squeezes, financial experts say
Scotland’s 32 local authorities will hit families with the biggest council tax hikes for decades[/caption]
Opponents blasted John Swinney’s party for playing down chances of whopping tax increases[/caption]
Typical bills are now set to soar by 9.6 per cent, with the average Band D tab rocketing by £135 a year and Band H homeowners paying around an extra £331 annually.
Millions also face a double whammy when water charges increase by 9.9 per cent, or an average of £44 per year, from April.
It emerged that SNP-run Falkirk Council has imposed the biggest hike of 15.61 per cent.
But residents in Aberdeenshire, Angus, Clackmannanshire, East and West Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Midlothian, Moray, North Lanarkshire, Orkney, Shetland and Borders also face double-digit rises.
The surges come after Finance Secretary Shona Robison binned a council tax freeze but insisted she had still given local authorities enough cash to ensure there was “no big reason” to increase levies.
But leaders insisted her Budget failed to bridge a shortfall of almost £400million — while they have also been stung by the Labour UK Government’s National Insurance rises.
Opponents last night blasted John Swinney’s party for playing down chances of whopping tax increases.
Tory finance spokesman Craig Hoy insisted Nats’ measures had left their own politicians with “no option” but to hike bills.
He hit out: “Who is John Swinney trying to kid?
“If his financial settlement to local authorities was fair, we wouldn’t be seeing double-digit increases from SNP-run councils.
“SNP underfunding has left councils with no option but to impose eye-watering council tax hikes to maintain essential services.”
Labour local government spokesman Mark Griffin warned that millions of Scots were now facing financial “pain” while the hikes left Mr Swinney’s spin “in tatters”.
Slamming the SNP’s years of cuts, Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie added: “Essential services can’t be provided on the cheap.”
In her December Budget speech, veteran Cabinet minister Ms Robison had declared: “With record funding, there is no reason for big increases in council tax next year.”
But financial experts last night claimed her former boss Humza Yousaf paved the way for the wave of hikes — by imposing a council tax freeze in 2023 in a desperate bid to woo voters.
And think-tanks scotched Holyrood ministers’ claims that increases in funding had been sufficient to prevent steep rises.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies criticised SNP ministers for “overstating” increases.
Its research showed Scots councils would need to impose rises of almost 20 per cent to match the spending power of local authorities down south. IFS economist David Phillips told how councils were now taking action to “undo” former First Minister Mr Yousaf’s policies.
He said: “After a freeze last April, several councils are increasing tax by 10 per cent or more this April.
“A similar percentage increase to most of England over two years — in effect ‘undoing’ the freeze.
“That will reflect the cost pressures council are facing. To match the increase in overall funding English councils are set to receive compared to 2023, Scottish council tax would have needed to increase by almost 20 per cent.”
Mr Phillips said that forthcoming funding hikes were too little, too late for cash-strapped councils.
Rises are all SNP’s to own
Commentary by Political Editor Conor Matchett.
ALMOST two decades after promising to scrap the flawed and outdated council tax, the SNP are overseeing the largest increases for 20 years.
John Swinney and his ministers will claim that they have done everything they possibly could to avoid big hikes.
The truth is this year’s pain is the fault of their decisions.
Experts agree that Humza Yousaf’s move to freeze council tax last year has compounded the misery for 2025.
It helped the richest most and did nothing for his prospects as First Minister.
But don’t fall for current First Minister Mr Swinney’s spin either.
It is his party which froze council tax for decades. Councils are gasping for more cash to stay afloat.
This year’s hikes are solely the SNP’s to own.
He said: “The Scottish Government is right when it says next year’s Budget will increase funding to councils.
“But by comparing plans for the coming financial year to initial plans for 2024-25 and 2023-24, it is overstating the scale of those increases.”
Other experts agreed that local authority chiefs were still reeling from the cap introduced by Mr Yousaf, who quit last May.
João Sousa, of Strathclyde University’s Fraser of Allander Institute, said: “This seems a straightforward consequence of last year’s freeze.
“Freezing them in one year reduces revenues in all subsequent years. This looks to be a case of councils making up for what they would have wanted to do last year but weren’t allowed to.”
Last week the First Minister had admitted being “obviously concerned” at the prospect of council tax hikes but insisted the Scottish Government had “done its bit”.
Spiralling debt crisis warning
By Conor Matchett
THOUSANDS more Scots could be plunged into crippling council tax debt as bills rise at their highest rates for two decades, help agencies warned.
Advice Direct Scotland said 18,400 people, the equivalent of 67 per day, turned to its moneyadvice.scot service over local levies between April and December last year.
And John Baird, head of debt services at ADS is expecting another flood of pleas for assistance in 2025.
He said: “The looming council tax increases will heap even more pressure on individuals and families who have already been struggling with rising energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis.”
Meanwhile, Citizen’s Advice Scotland said council tax was the “single biggest debt” they deal with each year.
CAS financial health spokesman Myles Fitt said: “We are very concerned about the impact these rises will have on people already struggling with the cost-of-living.
“Council tax debt is the single biggest debt our network deals with each year and our fear is these rises could further increase numbers of people falling into debt or further into debt.”
Mr Swinney told reporters then: “Local government asked us for a real-terms increase in the core settlement and we gave that.
“We have increased local authority funding by a billion pounds.
“But I do acknowledge that there are real challenges in the delivery of public services.”
He also blamed Labour at Westminster for increasing employer National Insurance contributions.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government gave Nats cash to compensate for the impact of the hikes across Scotland’s vast public sector workforce. But Mr Swinney claimed this failed to cover the full costs which he estimated was the equivalent of a three or four per cent increase in council tax.
Nats had given embattled councils another £144million to offset the impact of the increases, while Ms Robison warned them against “inflation-busting” tax hikes.
She said last month: “The certainty I offer should reduce the pressure on council tax decisions locally and help councils avoid inflation busting increases.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Budget delivered a record local government settlement worth over £15 billion. Decisions on council tax are a matter for local authorities to take in consultation with communities to whom they are accountable.
“Over 460,000 households receive some level of council tax reduction, and on average recipients save over £850 a year.”
The Scottish Sun says
Public lose in SNP game
FINANCE Secretary Shona Robison is the minister ultimately in charge of your council tax. She earns around £100,000 a year.
She will retire from parliament next year with a golden goodbye of about £75,000, then look forward to a generous Holyrood pension.
We doubt she will be worrying about the eight per cent council tax rise she has just been hit with in Dundee.
We also doubt she will lose sleep over the 9.9 per cent increase in charges from public-owned Scottish Water.
But plenty of her constituents will. Just as there will be many people across Scotland — facing council tax hikes of between six and 15.6 per cent — who will be pushed beyond broke.
With inflation running at three per cent, these are downright cruel hikes after the past few years where the cost of living crisis has hit so hard.
Yet Ms Robison and her SNP colleagues have been playing a blame game in recent months, in full knowledge these rises were incoming.
The Finance Secretary claimed in her Budget speech in December there was “no reason for big increases in council tax”. What nonsense.
Funding
This was all part of a strategy for the SNP ministers to duck responsibility and shift the blame onto a soft target.
Gripes are commonplace with councils over issues like bin collections and potholes. But nobody in their right mind thinks that they actually WANT to hike bills to this degree.
Councils have been forced into this by years of funding squeezes from the Scottish Government, compounded by unaffordable pay rises pushed through by the same SNP ministers who have refused to grasp the nettle and reform the local government landscape.
The situation is made worse by the UK Government’s employer’s National Insurance hike. Some money came to compensate for this, but Scotland’s higher public sector employment rate means a shortfall — which SNP ministers have refused to compensate for.
So, it means Scots are being ripped off.
For Ms Robison, this may be a political game. The Nats’ antics in recent months suggest that, and that their priority was to protect their own reputations — not households.
But for ordinary Scots, this is real life. And the decisions of SNP ministers over many years have led to this.
As Ms Robison waltzes off into the sunset next year, the Nats will be lucky not to face the backlash they deserve.
