Greens launch manifesto with plan to raise taxes

Published on Monday 18 April 2011 20:10

Greens today launched their manifesto for the Holyrood elections and claimed a majority of Scots back their policy of raising taxes rather than cutting services.

&#149 Green Party candidate for Lothian Alison Johnstone. The party would also scrap plans for a new Forth crossing

The manifesto proposes using the Scottish Parliament's tax powers to raise income tax by 0.5p from 2013.

The Greens would also replace the council tax and business rates with a Land Value Tax, scrap the new Forth Road Bridge and invest 2.6 billion to reverse cuts to council services. They said the 0.5p tax would raise at least 200 million. They calculated someone earning 20,000 would pay an additional 1.20 a week in tax, while someone on 44,875 would pay an extra 3.60 a week.

The party revealed the results of an opinion poll which found 51 per cent of people agreed with their stance that the Scottish Government should find ways to limit cuts to Scottish public services by raising taxes and other revenue.

Around 29 per cent disagreed and the rest neither agreed nor disagreed. YouGov polled 1135 Scottish adults online between April 13-15.

Green co-convener Patrick Harvie said: "The Tories and the Lib Dems may be taking the heat for the cuts to Scottish public services, but neither Labour nor the SNP have put forward a credible alternative and they too should take a share of the blame.

"They are terrified of looking even vaguely left-wing, and they dare not tell the public the truth, which is that if public services are to be protected, the next Scottish Government will have to raise more money to fund them. As so often, though, the public are ahead of the politicians, and as this poll shows, there's strong support for the position only the Greens are setting out.

"When the 1997 Scottish Parliament referendum went through, the public voted clearly for a Parliament with the powers to protect Scotland against a future Tory Government's assault on the public sector. It was a hypothetical situation back then, but now it's all too real, and if anything, it's worse than we feared."

The Greens' manifesto also features proposals to protect post offices, promote community banks, cut fares on public transport, encourage community-based energy schemes and stop large incinerator projects.

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