Stirling loses high tax reputation from past
Stirling’s once unenviable claim to fame of having the highest council tax in Scotland is now a distant memory, it was stressed this week.
Stirling Council finance committee chairman Neil Benny said they are currently 10th highest in the council tax league of shame following the latest budget announcements.
At a meeting in Viewforth last Thursday councillors voted not to increase council tax, despite having the chance to up the levy by 3 per cent following the end of the council tax freeze after almost a decade.
It means residents in bands A to D properties in Stirling will pay no additional council tax charge .
However, those living in homes in bands E to H will see their tax go up due to changes implemented by the Scottish Government, aimed at raising extra cash to improve educational attainment.
Band E homes face a rise of £102 a year; F will go up by £222, G by £351 and H by £539. A total of 17,331 Stirling households will pay more.
Councillor Benny, the Conservative group leader, said:“Thanks to the way we have run the council’s finances over the last five years and the two tax cuts we pursued during the previous five years, Stirling now has lower taxes than ten years ago.
“This is no consolation for residents who reside in band E-H properties, who will see huge rises at the hands of the SNP Scottish Government of up to 22 per cent on bills.
“However, we will continue to fight to make Stirling better run and more cost-effective for residents.”
SNP finance spokesman Gerry McLaughlan accused Councillor Benny of“memory loss”and added:“During the period he is talking about there was a nine-year council tax freeze imposed by the Scottish Government.
“In the last year we have seen all too clearly the financial wizardry of this Tory-Labour administration.
“They managed to empty the fund set aside to help implement new methods of working by having to allocate all of the £1.8 million in the risk fund to bail out social care, which still needs a further £2 million from reserves to balance the books.
“They also had to authorise an extra quarter of a million pounds to smooth out the chaos they presided over with the new bins.
“Finally they have a customer excellence programme that was meant to bring in a further £1 million in savings, which is now on the verge of being abandoned because they haven’t a clue what they actually want.
“Any improvement in Stirling’s financial well-being has been in spite of Councillor Benny rather because of any of his actions.”
Councils with a higher council tax rate than Stirling are Highland, Inverclyde, Edinburgh, Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, Aberdeen, Dundee, Midlothian and Glasgow. North and South Ayrshire have yet to set a rate but even with the maximum rise they would not affect Stirling’s position on the league table.
Western Isles has the lowest band D council tax (£1055) while the highest is Glasgow with £1249. Stirling’s band D rate is £1197.
We will continue to make Stirling better run and more cost-effective