Triple whammy as council tax set to rise for the next three years

Council tax bills will land on doormats by the middle of March. The demands will be 4.79% more than last year and households should expect rises next year and in 2022.

The Edinburgh Reporter spoke to Finance Convener, Cllr Alasdair Rankin, about the reasons for the increase.

He said: "Of the £88 million that we need to save over that period, some £51 million will come out of corporate budget. That means it will not affect service levels. And we've done that deliberately because service delivery is what we want to protect as far as we possibly can, within the resources that are available to us.

"Our budget isn't necessarily the final word. We have the very unusual situation of setting the budget ahead of the Scottish Government and ahead of the Westminster government. Now, it may be that as the SNP is a minority in the Scottish Parliament, that they come to an agreement with another party in order to get the budget passed. That may release extra money, which comes the way of local government. I know there's been a lot of lobbying in The Scottish Parliament for that to happen."

Cllr Rankin said the UK Government's pledge for massive investment in infrastructure may have a ripple down effect for Scotland.

He added: "We know very well that the UK Government has promised a lot in terms of capital spending and spending on infrastructure. We would expect to get Barnett consequentials coming through to us on that score. And it may be, if the UK Government loosens its fiscal rules, that more money will be available in revenue budget as well."

The increase in council tax ia an effort to close the gap between what the council receives in income and what they need to spend in their revenue budget.

The rise from 3% to 4.79% means that at the median level - Band

D - residents will pay an extra 44 pence per week.

Glasgow City Council settled on a rise of 4.64% while Scotland's other 30 local authoriites are in the process of setting budgets.