Council tax reform could be ‘key intervention’ in tackling poverty – campaigners

Reforming Scotland’s council tax system could be a “key intervention” in reducing poverty, campaigners have said.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said the current arrangements – where people pay an amount linked to the value of their property in 1991 – is “unfair by design” and has a disproportionate impact on poorer Scots.

Adding one in 10 households on the lowest incomes are behind on their council tax bills, the organisation branded the charge “outdated” and “regressive”, saying it “desperately needs reform”.

It welcomed planned reforms announced by Finance Secretary Shona Robison to bring in two new bands for properties worth more than £1 million, but said more significant changes could be a “key intervention to reduce poverty and hardship, and improve the fairness of our tax system”.

Chris Birt, JRF associate director for Scotland, said: “For more than three decades, Scotland has been saddled with a council tax system which is deeply unfair, as well as unpopular.

“It means that some people on low incomes are having to choose between heating, eating, or paying their council tax bill, at the same time as subsidising the wealthiest in society.

“We know that for the next Scottish government, meeting the nation’s legally-binding, cross-party child poverty targets by 2030-31 will require bold action at scale.

“A fair tax on housing wealth is part of what is needed, by cutting through the budget constraints that have limited investment in radical solutions to poverty.”

Mr Birt said the next government “must prioritise council tax reform to create the fiscal foundations for a fairer Scotland”.

He also said all parties standing in May’s Holyrood election should “bring forward proposals for major legislative change on council tax”.

He stressed: “We need to break a 30-year cycle of hoping a problem will just go away.”

The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.