Argyll & Bute one of two councils to back Scottish Government local income tax plan

Argyll & Bute and Renfrewshire are the two out of thirty two Scottish councils to come out in favour of the Scottish Government’s plan to introduce a local income tax.This will replace Council Tax tax and the proposal is that it will be set at three pence in the pound.

88% of the Scottish public were in favour of the planned change last year, according to a survey by You give. This September a survey by the same company on the same subject showed that the level of support had fallen to 46%.

Concerns centre on whether the new tax will raise the same amount of revenue as the Council Tax, with City of Edinburgh Council warning that the planned local income tax will leave a shortfall of £921 million which would have a significant impact on budgets if it were passed on to local authorities.

The Liberal Democrats, the original proposers of a local income tax, have failed to support the measure on its introduction by the Scottish Government.

Finance Secretary, John Swinney, insists that four out of five households will be better off, or as well off as at present; and that the move will lift 90,000 Scots, including 10,000 children, out of relative poverty.

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