Burning Issue: Does consultation show local income tax would be fair and popular?

Published on Monday 24 November 2008 21:19

Yes JOE FITZPATRICK SNP MSP and member of Holyrood's finance committee

IN THE Scottish election, council tax was one of the biggest issues on the doorstep. Most people I spoke to wanted the unfair council tax to be scrapped and replaced with a system based on ability to pay. The results of the government's consultation confirm that is clearly the case. Opposition parties who want to keep the high council tax are out of touch.

Abolishing the unpopular council tax in favour of a local income tax will mean the biggest tax cut in a generation and put money in people's pockets, lowering the tax burden on hard-working Scots. In the current economic climate, that will be widely welcomed.

It means 300-480 a year for low- and middle-income households. It will lift 90,000 people, including 10,000 children, out of relative poverty. Four out of five households will be better off, or no worse off. Our proposals have won strong backing, and the majority agree that council tax benefit money should be retained in Scotland, not kept by the Treasury.

The astonishing thing is the absolute failure of Labour to offer an alternative. Any party that chooses to oppose the SNP's plans to scrap council tax must put forward their alternative – to admit their plans for revaluation. Labour has singularly failed to do so. Their credibility on the council tax is in tatters.

The SNP is the only party with a real proposal to scrap council tax and to make local taxation fairer. Labour and the Tories are united as the last defenders of a failed council tax system. The SNP is determined to introduce a fair system of local taxation. The Parliament has twice agreed that council tax is discredited. Now there is clear public support behind our plans.

No

ANDY KERR

Labour MSP and party's finance spokesman

NOTHING damns the SNP consultation on local income tax (LIT) as much as the manner of its publication. To sneak it out on the day of the Pre-Budget Report – some commentators are calling it the most important budget since the war – was an indication of what the SNP have to hide. It is a pathetic attempt to avert our eyes from a bad policy for Scotland.

On a day the Chancellor and Prime Minister cut taxes – except for the highest-earners – here we have the SNP intent on tax rises which will hit working Scots and make Scotland the most highly taxed part of the UK.

This was one of the worst consultations undertaken. Fewer than 500 people replied to the LIT consultation, and the government's own civil servants warn that no conclusion can be drawn from so few replies.

The SNP has also concentrated on individuals, rather than organisations. Hardly surprising – only ten out of 86 organisations were in favour of LIT. Less than half thought the 3p rate was right, and less than half thought it would be fairer. This is no mandate for such a massive change to our taxation system.

On the day the UK government was trying to make life easier for small businesses, the SNP was only making life more difficult.

It could be even worse if the SNP push ahead, with Lib Dem backing, and opt for 32 different rates across Scotland. The CBI and Scottish Chambers of Commerce recoil from LIT already, because of the excessive burden it would put on small businesses. This tax is an attack on jobs, which will drive the talented out of Scotland and ensure we are unable to attract corporate headquarters.