Bands on the run

While Christine Jardine MP pleads for a change to the way local councils are financed, she might want to reflect on why it is so difficult to get that change (Perspective, 17 September).

She ignored, for example, the role of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in thwarting the introduction of a local income tax(lit) almost a decade ago.

Her party’s insistence that there should be different LIT rates throughout Scotland was one reason it was difficult for the minority SNP administration to introduce the measure.

That was not the whole story, of course. The business community was strongly opposed, fearing the effect on incentives among the workforce generally. Labour and the Conservatives were wedded to the council tax system, although both felt something should be done about

the bands. There was some reason to believe that the UK Treasury would not co-operate in the administration of an entirely new system. Many expressed concern about the electoral impact. There was furious debate about whether the majority would be better or worse off, and concern about the impact of abolishing the 25 per cent discount sole occupiers can receive under the council tax system.

I can accept that a lot has changed over the last ten years. The Scottish Government is in a stronger position to bring about change if it chooses. What has not changed are some of the basic principles of taxation – taking into account the ability to pay, certainly, but also the crucial question of simplicity and ease of administration. On all these grounds, local income tax just has the edge. It is the political difficulty of introducing it that is the problem.

Until that is overcome we may just have to accept that reform of the council tax is the way forward unless Christine Jardine and her colleagues can produce a prospectus that shows a land value tax is both achievable and workable.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes