TAX is the foundation upon which much of our society is built. 

People in Scotland realise this. Polling from the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey shows that two-thirds support increasing taxation to fund more public spending on health, education and social benefits. 

A poll by Opinium found 61 per cent of people think the wealthy should pay more tax than they do now, including 53 per cent of Tory voters in the 2019 general election. 

Polling from YouGov shows almost half say they are personally prepared to pay more tax in order to fund public services. 

Very few people favour reducing both taxes and public services (3 per cent in the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey and 8 per cent in YouGov), but that is precisely what the Scottish government council tax freeze will do. 

If council tax bills had risen by the same percentage amount in Scotland as in England over the last 25 years, Scottish councils would have had an extra £1.7 billion to spend on services in 2022/23. This “council tax gap” has largely been paid for by increased charges and cuts to the services the most vulnerable rely on.

The unilateral decision from the SNP to freeze council tax, without prior notice to local authorities nor trade union partners, was a disrespectful move of party-political electioneering. 

They are not alone, however, with UK Labour seemingly set on a similar short-term path if elected at Westminster, while Scottish Labour campaigned against the Scottish government’s now-ditched proposals to increase council tax for high-value properties (bands E-H) in the Rutherglen by-election. 

Those proposals, to increase tax on bands E-H, would have raised £176 million. An inflationary increase would have raised hundreds of millions more. 

That is money that will now have to be found in the form of reductions to services and working people will pay the price when they see the scything cuts inflicted upon their communities. 

It will make an already bleak situation much worse. An astonishing 60,000 jobs have already been lost in local government since 2007. 

Glasgow is facing £100 million of council budget cuts and a cull of jobs in Glasgow Life. Edinburgh has a shortfall of £16m for health and social care funding alone. Aberdeen is facing council budget cuts of £29m. The list goes on.

And don’t buy the spin from the SNP or Labour or that this is to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. 

If you you had £400m to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, what would you do? 

Would you spend it on a tax cut which does nothing for those on the lowest incomes who don’t pay any council tax, and gives almost twice as much to the richest 50 per cent in Scotland as it does to the poorest 50 per cent? 

Or would you spend it on investment in local government services which we know disproportionately benefit those on low incomes? 

I might have a bit more patience if the latest announcement was accompanied by a genuine commitment to replace the council tax, but it doesn’t seem to be. 

Let’s be clear — the council tax is regressive, woefully outdated and wholly unfair. It’s a dereliction of duty by successive politicians to not have scrapped the thing in its entirety and replaced it with something far more progressive.  

The last time we had a rates evaluation in Scotland was 1991. Property prices have risen exponentially since then, but the taxes derived are still tied to a year when John Major was prime minister and there was still a Soviet Union. 

As part of Welsh Labour’s co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh government is undertaking a revaluation exercise to be completed by April 2025. If Wales can undertake a re-evaluation, why can’t Scotland? 
 
Not only is the council tax dated, but it’s also simply not that good a revenue-raiser. Only 19 per cent of councils’ revenue comes from council tax. 

In Scandinavia, 30 per cent of all taxes are levied by local government. In Scotland, the figure is less than 8 per cent. We can’t have Scandinavian standard public services on Scottish levels of tax.   

There is wealth in our nation. Currently, two families have more wealth than a fifth of Scotland’s population.

Replacing the council tax with a proportional property tax levied between 0.5 and 1 per cent of the value of the property, would not only target wealth and property more equitably, but also raise far more revenue for local government in a fairer way.

The decision from the Scottish government to revert to type is done out of short-sighted polling considerations rather than good governance or proficient public policy. 

If the SNP and Labour are to live up to the progressive principles they both espouse, then they need to show more political conviction and less political cowardice. 

Ahead of the Scottish Budget in December, that means raising revenue to be raised from those that can most afford to pay through income tax increases for high earners, a replacement to the council tax, a wealth tax and the devolution of new taxes to local government.

Because Scotland demands better services — and those services need to be paid for. 

Roz Foyer is general secretary of the Scottish TUC.