Council tax to be ‘effectively’ frozen across Scotland

Council tax will be “effectively” frozen across Scotland after talks with two rebel local authorities reached a breakthrough.

Argyll and Bute Council said it would reconsider a freeze after previously announcing a 10 per cent hike. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government said an agreement had been reached with Inverclyde Council. It will still raise council tax by 8.2 per cent, but will give taxpayers a “one-off credit” to fully mitigate the impact of this.

A spokesman for First Minister Humza Yousaf said: "Council tax has been frozen across all 32 local authorities.” He added: “For 31 council areas, it’s a simple freeze, and in effect it is a freeze in inverclyde because of the one-off credit.”

The move will come as a relief for Mr Yousaf, who announced a council tax freeze during the SNP conference last year, but faced an immediate backlash from local authorities.

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison, who is also in charge of Scotland’s finances, previously said those councils which raised the tax would not receive a share of extra funding.

Argyll and Bute said it had been given“extra assistance” to deal with the impact of severe weather support.

Council leader Robin Currie said: “We can now look at freezing council tax for the coming year. We have been lobbying hard for equal support for Argyll and Bute, which reflects the incredibly severe impact of unprecedented severe weather in October last year.

“We made a very strong case for that to the Scottish Government at a meeting we asked for in January this year. We have continued to press ministers ever since on a range of other issues. We are, of course, delighted that they have listened to our calls for severe weather support and that they have now provided for Argyll and Bute that extra assistance that we are fighting for.”