Tories claim council tax step blow to democracy

Government to use £3m of Perthshire taxpayers’ cash to help fund education policy

Millions of pounds raised from council tax-payers in Perthshire will be spent in other parts of the country – in what the Tories have called a major blow for local democracy.

The bills for larger households in Perth and Kinross are to rise by up to £521 a year in April under the SNP’s council tax reforms.

But the extra revenue is being used to fund a national schools policy, which will be less beneficial to Perthshire youngsters than in most other parts of the country.

The Scottish Tories say that is undermining the principle that cash raised locally is spent in the community.

However, the Scottish Government says that its reforms will raise £100 million that will go towards closing the attainment gap, and that there will be no change for three out of four Scottish households in how much council tax they pay.

Perth and Kinross will see more than £3 million of local tax revenue leaving its borders every year as part of an SNP cash grab, claim the Tories.

But Angus, Dundee and Fife are among the winners of the Scottish Government’s council tax reforms, which increases the financial burden on the middle classes to fund a national schools policy.

The Scottish Conservatives say taking funds out of council areas to give to head teachers in other parts of the country is an affront to local decision-making.

Deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “Across Scotland, communities are now discovering that their council tax payments are being taken away and spent in an entirely separate part of the country.”

Under the reforms, which have been criticised by the Tories and the Greens, thousands of households in Tayside and Fife will be left with higher tax bills.

From April next year, those in Band E-H properties will automatically see their bills increase.

Dundee bills for those in Band H homes will go up by £545, compared with £503 in Fife, £521 in Perth and Kinross and £482 in Angus.

Opposition parties are calling for the SNP to think again on the reforms, approved last week but at the cost of the nationalists accepting criticism.

The additional revenues will be clawed back by central government and put into the Attainment Fund, to then be distributed to schools across the country based on the number of pupils receiving free meals.

The amount of cash Dundee will get from the education fund is £3.3m higher a year than the council tax revenues which it will have diverted to the national pot, the Tory analysis found.

In Fife, the surplus is £2.4m for 2017-18, compared with £112,000 in Angus. But Perth and Kinross will see £3.1m spent elsewhere, meaning council tax-payers will fund efforts to close the Scottish attainment gap.

The SNP administration insists extra revenue raised via council tax will be kept locally, but indicated there will be a corresponding reduction in the grant councils get from central government.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “As a result of these reforms, local authorities will keep every penny of the council tax that is raised in their areas and there will be no change for three out of four Scottish households in terms of how much council tax they pay.”