The next new petition for consideration is PE1816, lodged by Lewis McCathie. The petition calls on the Scottish Government to reform the financial powers of local authorities by reforming the council tax and devolving more tax powers to local authorities.
In his written submission, the Minister for Public Finance and Migration states that the Scottish Government agrees that the present system of council tax must end, but says that, at present, there is not a cross-party consensus on what should replace it. He explains that efforts are under way to redevelop such a consensus and that, although the work was paused as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, he hopes that those efforts will recommence in the autumn.
The committee has also received a written submission from Patricia Brown, who considers the present system to be unfair. As the assessment of council tax liability is based on property valuations from 1991, Mrs Brown states that properties built after 1991 are not being treated equally.
There are, clearly, important issues here. There is political consensus that the council tax is problematic, but there is no consensus on the way forward. At this stage, the Scottish Government seems to be focused on building political consensus rather than on taking a position and seeing whether people will support it. I think that the matter will be discussed—it is an issue that we are aware of. People have been positive about the devolution of additional taxes. The tourist tax, for example, has certainly been welcomed; others have been slightly more contentious.
The idea of giving local authorities more control over raising revenue is important. In the recent period, the approach has gone in the other direction, partly because of the council tax freeze.
I certainly consider that there should be more autonomy at a local level. In cities such as Glasgow, where I live, the idea of the city region seems to have fallen out of favour, but the idea of individual cities being economic generators and needing powers in order to develop is a whole other matter.
All those issues are politically important. However, my sense is that, although the petition highlights the issues, when it comes to considering what we can do, it simply provides us with the argument that there is a problem. Obviously, politically and much more broadly, the Parliament will need to find solutions to the issue. My view is that we should close the petition. The issue is not going away and it is one that all the political parties will continue to wrestle with.
What are members’ views?
