Tories offer £150 council tax cut

Published on Thursday 11 September 2008 22:58

MONEY the Scottish Government has set aside to pay for a local income tax could be used to give all Scottish households a cut of £150 in their council tax bills, Annabel Goldie, the Tory leader claimed yesterday.

The Scottish Government has put forward plans to replace the council tax with a local income tax (LIT).

But the gap between what is raised under council tax and what could be raised by a local income tax of 3p in the pound will take 281 million of taxpayers' money to fill – a figure Ms Goldie said would equate to 150 cut in council tax bills per household.

Miss Goldie branded the SNP proposals a "Scottish national income tax".

She told Alex Salmond at First Minister's Questions: "The Scottish Conservatives, with that money, would cut the council tax bill of every single household in Scotland, two million of them, by 150 each."

And she added: "In these rough economic times, real help is needed as soon as possible."

Mr Salmond replied that the Scottish Government's council tax freeze was a "good start" towards cutting people's bills.

He said: "I think the council tax freeze, something never achieved by the Conservative Party, who introduced the council tax and then increased it year after year, is a considerably good start in cutting the bills facing families across Scotland at the present moment."