1 in 4 households to be battered by SNP council tax storm

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today set out how the SNP and Greens will hammer households with a storm of council tax rises in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, as the party revealed how more than 1 in 4 households will see council tax soar under new Scottish Government plans.

A Scottish Government consultation on changes to council tax rates will conclude on 20th September. Scottish Liberal Democrat analysis of the government’s proposals has now revealed:

715,312 households will see council tax rises ranging from £124 to £835. Scotland currently has 2,562,357 chargeable dwellings. This means 28% of households will be hit by an additional council tax rise on top of any yearly increase.

• 354,197 households in Band E properties will see rises of between £124 and £150.

• 211,243 households in Band F will see rises of between £256 and £308.

• 135,840 households in Band G will see rises of between £432 and £519.

• 14,032 households in Band H will see rises of between £694 and £835.

The local authority which will see the highest number of households hit will be Edinburgh with 92,971, followed by 50,873 households in Aberdeenshire and 49,501 households in Glasgow. In every single local authority at least 1,500 households will see big rises.

Council tax bands are still based on valuations from 1991 or estimates based on what a property might have been worth for newer properties.

Commenting on the analysis, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“The SNP and Greens are planning on hammering households with a storm of council tax rises during the worst cost of living crisis for generations.

“The nationalists have been in government promising to abolish the council tax for 16 years –more than half the existence of the tax which Nicola Sturgeon said she “hated”.

“Now their new plan is to embed it, extend the lifetime of the current unfair system and hit almost a quarter of households with a massive extra bill at the worst possible time.

“These changes would see bills go up and services still cut. People would be paying more for less. It won’t offset the SNP/Green Government’s systematic underfunding of local government which has devastated essential local services.

“These tax hikes must be scrapped. The government should instead back Scottish Liberal Democrat plans that would deliver the power surge which councils need and end the underfunding of local government once and for all.”