Council tax freeze in Scotland 'not sensible long-term' as Greens demand reform

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The council tax freeze is "not a sensible policy for the long-term", the co-leader of the Scottish Greens has said.Patrick Harvie claimed local authorities had been "blindsided" by Humza Yousaf's announcement at the SNP conference in October last year.But the minister for tenants' rights - who joined the Scottish Government following the Bute House Agreement in 2021 - said he was now pushing for a timetable for reform.Harvie told the Record the decision to freeze council tax when many local authorities were struggling to provide services "wouldn't have been our choice""Not just in terms of what it is, but the way it was announced, with local government being blindsided by it," he said."If the SNP has an instinctive feeling that people want something done about it, it has to go beyond the short-term."It's not a sensible policy for the long-term.

It results in a local tax system that is even more out of date and out of kilter with the asset wealth that's there."The SNP pledged to scrap the council tax system in its 2007 manifesto but its attempts while in power to create a replacement have stalled.The Scottish Government said it remained "committed to developing fairer, more inclusive and fiscally sustainable forms of local taxation".A working group with Cosla, which represents local authorities, was set-up in 2022 to examine ways of reforming it.SNP ministers had been considering hiking council tax rates until Yousaf made his surprise announcement in October that they would be frozen in 2024-25.Harvie said a "timescale for fundamental reform" would now be thrashed out in the coming weeks as part of the Budget process."We've had some success with additional tax powers for councils, like the work place parking levy that