Council tax Scotland: Scottish Government knows majority of councils won't meet deadline to respond to tax freeze deadline

Finance secretary Shona Robison had asked councils to accept the Scottish Government’s proposed council tax freeze by February 16

The Scottish Government says it knows the majority of local authorities will not meet its deadline to accept their proposed council tax freeze.

Finance secretary Shona Robison had written to all 32 of Scotland’s councils asking them to confirm whether or not they will accept the Government’s council tax freeze by Friday, February 16.

However, the majority of councils will not be able to do this as they are yet to set their own budgets for 2024/25, it has been confirmed.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison had asked councils to accept the government's council tax freeze by February 16. Image: Jane Barlow/Press Association.

Cosla – the umbrella body for councils – has said it is in a "fundamental position of dispute" with the Government over funding.

A Government spokesman said: “The deputy first minister wrote to councils to ask for confirmation of their intentions on the council tax freeze by February 16 to inform stage two of the Scottish Budget.

“Ministers recognise that by that date, councils may still be finalising their council tax intentions and those will be subject to confirmation at the council budget meetings in February and March.”

Numerous councils have told The Scotsman they will not be responding to Ms Robison by the Friday deadline.

Ann Davie, chief executive of East Dunbartonshire Council, said: “The Scottish Government asked councils to respond to them by February 16 with an indication of whether they would be freezing council tax. We are not able to provide that information as councillors will meet on February 22 to determine the budgets and discuss council tax.”

A spokesman for Western Isles Council said it was “pretty impossible” to respond to the finance secretary when it had not yet set its own budget.

David Ross, leader of Fife Council, is understood to have been trying to arrange a meeting with the finance secretary to discuss this issue, as his authority’s budget will not be set until February 22. But a meeting has not happened to date.

A spokeswoman for Moray Council also said: “The council tax freeze will be discussed at the full council budget setting meeting on February 28 and we won’t be responding, in-line with other local authorities, to the Scottish Government at this time.”

Other councils who have said they won’t set their budget until after the Friday deadline include Aberdeen, Angus, Edinburgh, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian councils.

Some councils have, however, said they are planning to accept the proposed council tax freeze, despite having not yet set their budgets.

Aberdeenshire, Glasgow City, Perth and Kinross, Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands councils all told The Scotsman they are planning to accept the freeze.

The council tax freeze was initially announced as a surprise by First Minister Humza Yousaf at the SNP party conference in Aberdeen in October last year.

It immediately drew criticism from council leaders and Cosla as they were not made aware of this decision before the public announcement.

Ms Robison subsequently confirmed the Government was providing £144 million to cover the council tax freeze when she set out the 2024/25 Scottish Budget. Cosla had previously said £300m was needed for the freeze to be classed as fully-funded.

The final debate and vote on the Scottish Budget will take place on February 27.

Scottish Lib Dems MSP Willie Rennie described the disconnect between the Government and local authorities on the issue as disrespectful.

“It takes some nerve for an SNP Government who blew the budget on ferries that are years late to tell councils how to run their services,” he said. “The hypocrisy and disrespect shown by SNP ministers is truly galling.

“The current demand on public services is huge, so the warning from local authority leaders of relations having never been so low is extremely worrying.”