SNP and Tories vote to keep council tax

The Scottish Government, backed by the Conservatives, has defeated a Green motion to scrap the council tax system.

The SNP had promised to abolish the charge when it was first elected to power in 2007, but backtracked two years later as there was “no consensus” in Holyrood for the change.

The Scottish Government has since made some reforms to the charge but the Greens want the system scrapped.

Green local government spokesman Andy Wightman warned the party would not back the Scottish budget, as the minority administration has relied on in recent years, unless there was agreement to fundamentally reform council tax.

He said: “We want to see action and that includes as a bare minimum an unequivocal agreement to scrap the council tax.

“It’s a fundamentally bad tax and I’m disappointed that the government continues to believe that some minor tinkering will make the meaningful changes that are needed.”

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added: “We favour the ending of the council tax. We think it’s unfair. A land value tax is our alternative as it would levy a charge on the real economic value of the land.”