Edinburgh homeowners face 4.79% rise in council tax for second year in a row

Edinburgh residents are set to be hit by a triple whammy of tax rises - as leaked draft budget plans show last year’s council tax increase will be repeated in both 2021 and 2022.

Council tax rise on the cards at Edinburgh City Chambers

Draft budget documents, sent to each political group on the council and seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, show the council is planning back-to-back tax increases of 4.79 per cent - despite capital residents still suffering from the economic and emotional cost of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, the council raised the tax by 4.79 per cent, despite the SNP-Labour coalition pledging to only increase council tax by 3 per cent each year up until 2021 as part of its coalition agreement.

The document also proposes a series of brutal cuts to the council’s budget - including a demand to make £5m of savings from homelessness services, and wiping £19.8m from the staff budget.

The report, which outlines the local authority’s draft financial plans for the next few years, makes five budget assumptions:

There will be ‘full management of Edinburgh Integration Joint Board funding gaps in 2021/22 and in subsequent years’.

An ‘assumed containment of homelessness pressures at £10m in 2021/22, with delivery of £5m of savings in 2022/23’.

The ‘permissibility and levying of council tax increases of 4.79 per cent in each of 2021/22 and 2022/23’.

There will be ‘no specific additional funding to support priorities of tackling poverty and promotion sustainability and aspirations in schools’.

There will be ‘a delivery of total management and staff-related savings of £19.8m by 2022/23’.

Following the increase, council tax in 2021/22 across all bands will be as follows:

Band A - £935.13

Band B - £1091

Band C - £1246.85

Band D - £1402.71

Band E - £1843

Band F - £2279.40

Band G - £2746.97

Band H - £3436.64

Following the second increase, council tax in 2022/23 will be as follows:

Band A - £979.92

Band B - £1143.26

Band C - £1306.57

Band D - £1469.90

Band E - £1931.28

Band F - £2388.58

Band G - £2878.55

Band H - £3601.25

Edinburgh City Council has been asked to comment on the draft budget proposals.

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