Council tax reform a ‘smokescreen’ to raise taxes on middle earners, Tories say

The SNP’s plans to reform council tax are “nothing more than smokescreen” to raise taxes on “middle income Scotland”, the Tories have claimed.

The Scottish Government announced a consultation last year that proposed four ways of changing the current system.

The first would be a revaluation of properties to update them to current market rates from levels set in the 1990s, while and the second proposed a 12-band system to replace the current one.

The third option would see a “progressive 12-band system” where those in the lowest valued properties pay less than other proposals, with an increase for those in higher bands.

The fourth option proposed a progressive 14-band structure.

In the Budget last month, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said she would introduce two new higher council tax bands – one for properties between £1 million and £2 million and another for properties over £2 million.

Scotland currently has eight council tax bands – A through to H – while the average property price is around £193,000.

Speaking at Holyrood, Conservative MSP Craig Hoy urged the Scottish Government to ditch its consultation to reform council tax.

He said under the proposals in the consultation, some households could see their bills rise by as much as £2,700 to £6,515 a year, with anyone living in a home worth more than £240,000 paying more council tax.

Meanwhile, he said the creation of new tax bands for more expensive houses could hit those who are “asset rich but cash poor”, as well as elderly residents who want to remain in their family home.

Mr Hoy told the Finance Secretary that “the politics of envy are all over this Government’s proposals”.

He added: “That is why today we are calling on the Scottish Government to scrap the plans for additional rates and ditch their council tax consultation, because the consultation is nothing more than a smokescreen for higher tax on middle income Scotland.

“People have had enough of year on year tax rises from a Government which takes more and delivers less.”

Ms Robison said the Government is not advocating for any of the proposals in the consultation.

She told Parliament: “Instead, we are trying to determine if a consensus can be found so that local government taxation is as fair a system as possible.

“In the lead up to the Budget, our engagement made it clear that the consensus view was that it should be for individual councils to set their council tax rates without a freeze or a cap.”

She added the so-called mansion tax would impact less than 1% of properties.