All the rebel authorities have backed down to allow all of their constituents to benefit.
While Labour, Tory and LibDem councils tried to impose big council tax hikes, it was an SNP government which has protected family budgets during this cost-of-living crisis.
As well as showing a clear difference between the SNP and the Westminster parties, it also stands as an example to show voters how decisions made in Scotland prove better for the people of Scotland.
It was the SNP that delivered a policy to protect people during a cost-of-living crisis.
The above is from SNP Media.
Progressive? Surely not?
In December 2023, the Daily Record’s Paul Hutcheon claimed:
Humza Yousaf’s council tax gamble helps the wealthy and does nothing for the poor
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/humza-yousafs-council-tax-gamble-31210722
It’s a quick little-researched stab derived from an anti-SNP starting point.
In 2020, the Institute for Fiscal Studies put a bit more intellectual elbow into and concluded that the Conservative Party’s council tax freeze, beginning in 2010, would lead to these outcomes, illustrated in the graph above:
The biggest beneficiaries in proportional terms are those in the middle of the income distribution and those at the very bottom. Many poorer people gain little or not at all, because council tax benefit would have largely or entirely insulated them from the impact of the council tax increase that would have occurred in the absence of this policy.
‘Those in the middle’ are struggling too, Paul.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
green wheelie bin charge £50 though for those in e dunbartonshire lucky enough to have garden waste. meah.
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Yep no doubt ‘rebel’ councils will claw the money they would have liked to have taken from people in CTax, in some other ways.
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At least those with garden waste are more likely to afford it. Alternatively make a compost heap
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I’d like to know the population density set against council tax for the different councils throughout the UK.
If possible add the demographics land area and terrain and the size of the city or town, particular values in unemployment and poverty levels.
Can it be done?
Best Wishes,
Bob
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On you go?
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I spotted this article on Citizens Advice Scotland –
“A type of debt that you particularly need to avoid”
https://www.cas.org.uk/news/type-debt-you-particularly-need-avoid
This article was first published in the Herald on 9 March 2024.
“It’s March, so of course Council Tax (CT) is dominating the news again. As the talking heads ponder the big political issue – to freeze or not to freeze – we’ve just published research showing that 170,000 people per month in Scotland missed a CT payment last year, and so got into arrears.”
It continues
“When you miss a CT payment, it can lead to the Council taking the whole year’s payment from you. Not just the month you missed, the whole year. In one lump sum. Oh, and with a 10% late payment fee added on, plus a £86 charge to be notified in writing about the legal steps for debt recovery. This can be all done and dusted in a matter of weeks.”
The 170,000 per month figure is very high and demonstrates how bad the cost of living crisis is.
It will be interesting to see what the outcome of the double digit percentage increases in council tax some councils in the rest of the UK intend to bring in will be.
Will these increases stop cuts to public services or create more issues for their public services to deal with?
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There should be no £’s punishment for people not affording to pay the CTax if they are struggling, and to take a whole years worth out of someone’s bank, can councils do that? That would be really bad it would land some people in overdraft not pre-arranged which is never a good idea because £’s penalities for that tend to be very high.
There will be cuts to services by ‘rebel’ councils no doubt, lets see what they do to scupper the ScotGov freeze on CTax, can’t have them looking good now not in a UK election year, if that ever happens.
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Underlying the marked difference in Gov’t treatment of Council Tax increases in Scotland as compared with England & Wales are the radically different definitions of ‘Sovereignty’. In Scotland it lies with the people, but in England & Wales it lies in Westminster, where the majority party can do pretty well anything it wants if its majority is big enough.
In Scotland our SNP Gov’t acts in the interests of the Scottish people, while the Westminster Gov’t acts in the interests of its own ideology and/or its main funders. Until we are free of Westminster control, this fundamental difference will plague attempts at legislation in Holyrood and create endless friction between the 2 governments. Time to go!
Coinneach
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very true
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The Tories austerity. People cannot, eat and heat. They have taken money from the poorer to help the richer. Their actions are illegal. Constantly being challenged in Court. Westminster’s total misuse of Scottish revenues and resources. The fuel and energy increases. Scotland in surplus and nearer the source pays more. The illegal Barnett Formula. Westminster’s abuses kept secret under the Official Secrets Act. Lockerbie, Dunblane. Iraq kept secret for 100 years.
Desperate people are stealing from multinational retails making vast profits and tax evading. Royalty and their associates living privilege existence and tax evading. Wasting public monies on their extravagances, while showing false concern.
The Scottish Gov doing what it can to mitigate the injustice but still not having the powers to distribute wealth, and equality, more affectively. No taxation without representation. An Election soon. People who support Independence need to go out and vote for it. A higher turnout.
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i stopped paying council tax by direct debit october 2023 , the council just wrote to me then phoned me and emailed me , they cannot just take money from your bank without your permission there has to be a live direct debit if there isnt they seek other ways of payment.I eventually paid the arrears in January 2024 so i can confirm that you are given time to pay court action is a last resort many months later.
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if say the council tax is frozen for 10 years to 2034, and the Gov then tell the councils, we are withdrawing from the council tax frozen scheme, the council will be left in 2035 with the tax tax rate set at 2024, how should they then cover this massive shortfall?
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The government would have to foot the bill but massive increases on council tax in the following years, it would be like the Victorian era although we are fast going that way with Tory/labour millionaires austerity plans.
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Unionist councils spend too much on empty shops and offices. Not enough is spent on affordable houses, schools and proper rehab facilities. City centres are becoming like waste lands. Not enough people visit. Too expensive. Inflation and increased bank interest. The bank rate should come down. Inflation is falling.
Alex Salmond gave immunity for council tax arrears. Less people are in CT arrears. There is increased debt on credit cards and bank loans. Mortgages and rents are higher.
People are stealing because they have no money. Multinational retailers making vast increased profits evade tax. Put up prices. People cannot afford to pay. Brexit increased prices 1/3 on goods and supplies. Building materials, clothing and food supplies. Imports and exports cost more because of increased red tape and distribution centres.
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YET AGAIN SCOTLANDS GOVERNMENT LEADS BY EXAMPLE
and STILL the WESTMINSTER LADS AN LASSIES
milk the public
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