Angry about huge council tax rise? Your local councillors are not the ones to blame

East Lothian, the Borders, both 10 per cent, Glasgow 7.5 per cent, Fife 8.2 per cent, Edinburgh 8 per cent... the list of inflation-busting council tax rises in Scotland goes on.

After nearly two decades of Scottish Government freezes and caps, cash-strapped councils – there is no other kind – have had enough. With repeated, real-terms cuts in their funding forcing some to raid reserves designed only to be used in emergencies, they have been left with little choice.

Glasgow City Council’s treasurer Ricky Bell, an SNP councillor, said this year’s relatively generous grant from the Scottish Government – enabled in part by Labour’s big-spending UK Budget – meant they “finally” had some money to invest in frontline services "after years of austerity".

Protests against the council tax have been going on for years (Picture: Scott Barbour) | Getty Images

SNP’s centralising instincts

However, under the current system, Scotland’s council tax bills would need to rise even higher – by nearly a fifth – just to keep pace with increases in local government funding in England, according to a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

While many people will be shocked and angry by the actual increases, after years in which rates have hardly changed, they should direct their wrath not at councillors but SNP ministers who kept local authorities in straitened circumstances so they could fund grandstanding schemes in an attempt to make themselves look good.

Citizens Advice Scotland warned the increases meant about two million people would have to pay more council tax, with a spokesperson saying: "We are very concerned at the impact these rises will have on people already struggling with the cost of living... our fear is these rises could further increase numbers of people falling into debt or falling further into debt”.

Council tax debt is the single largest debt that Citizens Advice Bureaux deal with every year – one of several reasons why reform of local taxation is necessary.

Scotland’s councils have been short-changed for too long and can’t be blamed for deciding to bring in large council tax rises now. In many cases, this was done with cross-party support, given the lack of other credible options.

We are about to pay the price for the SNP’s overriding instinct to centralise money, power and influence.