SCOTLAND'S Finance Secretary has been warned against imposing another council tax freeze.
In a letter from Holyrood’s Local Government Committee, Shona Robison was told there is widespread opposition to such a move.
Former first minister Humza Yousaf froze council tax in a surprise announcement at the SNP conference last year.
Robison – who was also finance and local government secretary at that time – said the freeze was fully funded. But Scottish Green MSP Ariane Burgess, the convener of the committee, told her councils did not agree.
Local authority umbrella body Cosla said the decision “removed local discretion to raise income and the opportunity to invest in services and added complexity to the budget setting process, at a time when councils were having to make challenging decisions about the level of savings to make”.
In her letter to Robison, Burgess said: “Cosla was clear that it would fundamentally disagree with another freeze.”
She said the Government should, “unlike last year, ”have “meaningful engagement with local authorities before taking any decision”.
She added: “Should a similar policy be pursued in the future, the committee would like to see agreement between the Scottish Government and Cosla on what a ‘fully-funded’ freeze looks like.”
Burgess (above) said the implementation of the Verity House Agreement (VHA) – which looks to improve the relationship between the Scottish Government and councils – was viewed as “overwhelmingly negative” by councillors.
A consultation by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) found only 8% of respondents are happy with its progress, while 10% said it has improved relations.
The LGIU said: “After years of despairing results from English councils, we had hoped that the Scottish survey might offer a more optimistic picture.
“Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Senior council figures across Scottish local government are calling out for change.
“Senior council figures are not confident that the Scottish Government will change anything.”
The Mercat Group, a network of council chief executives, said the agreement is an example of “fine words about devolving power, sharing responsibility, and achieving parity of esteem between central and local government promptly followed by central government decisions and policies that achieved the opposite”.
Burgess added: “Almost all of our witnesses highlighted last year’s Scottish Government announcement that it would freeze council tax without having consulted local government.
“In the view of the LGIU, this demonstrated a failure of the principles of trust and respect in the VHA and would have longer-term implications due to loss of growth in the council tax base.”
The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
