Colin Fox: Council tax should be ditched, not frozen

THE U-turn by Labour's Iain Gray in favour of a council tax freeze may put him on a par with Alex Salmond, but it does little to challenge the unfairness of the tax itself.

Most Scots want to see the council tax scrapped. Since it bears no relation to one's income or ability to pay, the poor are inevitably hit hardest. Some senior citizens, for example, must hand over 20 per cent of their income for this one bill.

Mr Gray would therefore be well advised to examine the recent report on house sales over the past year. Properties in Belmont Drive, Edinburgh, Scotland's most expensive street we are told, sold for 2.3 million in 2010. Householders there pay 2,338 a year in council tax, while those in the city's average Band F properties, valued at less than a tenth the price, face a bill of 1,688 or 70 per cent as much.

In 2007, the SNP Holyrood manifesto accepted the fundamental injustice behind the council tax and pledged to scrap it in favour of an income-based alternative. The party has moved from this commitment to simply "freezing in" the unfairness. It's no wonder industrialists like Sir David Murray are happy to back it in May. Not only did the SNP not deliver on its 2007 election promise, it didn't even put up a fight. It chickened out of submitting a bill to parliament replacing the council tax. This is in stark contrast to the Scottish Socialist Party, which presented two bills in consecutive sessions.

The SSP remains committed to an income-based alternative that shifts the burden on to the residents of streets like Belmont Drive.

• Colin Fox is the joint national spokesperson of the Scottish Socialist Party.