Council tax freeze could lead to ‘sweeping’ cuts, Liberal Democrats warn

Humza Yousaf’s promised council tax freeze could lead to “sweeping” cuts to local services, a Liberal Democrat councillor has warned.

The warning comes amid concerns that the Scottish Government will fail to provide sufficent cash to local authorities to compensate them.

The Scottish Government has not yet said how much it will spend to freeze council tax payments for all Scots in 2024-25.

That led to Kevin Lang, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Edinburgh City Council to claim that “the SNP will not commit to full funding councils for the promised council tax freeze”.

But he insisted that providing sufficient funding to councils to compensate them for the council tax freeze was “essential to avoid further sweeping, damaging cuts at a time of high inflation and increasing demand for services”.

Mr Lang told the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Edinburgh the situation showed “just how irresponsible the SNP are”.

He spoke out as the conference passed a motion which condemned the SNP/Green Scottish Government for “causing a crisis in local government through successive cuts to council grants”.

Claiming the council tax freeze had been announced by the First Minister without first consulting either the Scottish Cabinet or the local government body Cosla (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), the motion said it was a breach of the deal Mr Yousaf signed with councils after taking office earlier this year, and was also a breach of the European Charter of Local Self Government.

The motion commits Liberal Democrat MSPs to use the upcoming Holyrood budget process to “push for local councils to be fully compensated for any freeze in council tax next year”.

In addition it promised Liberal Democrats will have “firm commitments” to “properly fund” local councils and a “fairer alternative to the council tax” in their manifesto for the next Scottish Parliament elections in 2026.

Speaking about the financial pressures on local authorities, councillor Robert Brown from South Lanarkshire Council said: “The stark fact is even with a significant and hefty council tax increase, or equivalent funding, Scottish councils are still left with a huge gap in their finances.”

This, he said, was “caused by record inflation and the Scottish Government’s failure to provide a fair funding deal”.

He added: “As things stand councils across Scotland will have to balance the books, they’ve got to cut staff, they’ve got to close leisure facilities, they’ve got to reduce teacher and social work numbers.

“These are cuts fashioned by the SNP First Minister, imposed on communities across Scotland.”

Councillor Sally Pattle from West Lothian Council was also critical of the Scottish Government, saying while the SNP had promised to scrap the charge when they came to government in 2007 they had “done nothing but tinker around the edges”.

She added that this had “only served to further embed an unfair and outdated regime”.

At the Scottish Green Party conference last weekend co-leader and Scottish Government minister Patrick Harvie said the Government will have developed a “firm alternative” to the council tax by the time of the next Scottish Parliament elections.