SNP Pledge To Freeze Council Tax For Two Years

The pledge outlined today (Wednesday 13 Dec) sets out our new commitment to freeze the level of Council Tax.

The SNP pledge to freeze Council Tax for two years pending the introduction of a fair local income tax will cost around £50 million per annum.

The pledge will be funded by allowing Councils to retain cash generated by efficiency savings. At present, the Labour/Liberal Scottish Executive requires this money to be returned to the central pot. An SNP administration will instead allow Councils to keep the money and require them to plough it back in to help hard pressed Council Tax payers and freeze Council Tax at April 2007 levels.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Colleague

The council elections in May next year are likely to be the most important in a generation. Jack McConnell's decision to introduce proportional representation for these elections will ensure that the Labour Party's stranglehold of Scottish local authorities will be brought to an end. On top of this the rising support for the Scottish National Party will mean that Labour will lose control of virtually every council in Scotland, and the SNP is likely to emerge as the biggest party in local government.

This is good news for Scottish democracy, but we must not take anything for granted, and we shall have to work harder than ever to turn our poll leads into votes in May. But be in no doubt you can win this election for the SNP and break the back of Labour control in Scottish local government.

Although there are many local issues that will be important in different parts of the country we must make the replacement of the unfair council tax by a local income tax based on the ability to pay central to our campaign.

Since 1997 the unfair Council Tax has increased by over 60% - that's four times the rate of inflation. And it hits the poor hardest, particularly pensioners, as they have to pay a higher proportion of their income on Council Tax.

Local Income Tax is fairer as it is based on the ability to pay. Under the SNP's proposal more than half a million pensioners will pay nothing at all as they don't pay income tax. And we shall cut the over all burden of local taxation so that families on low and middle incomes will benefit.

After years of Labour increases in Council Tax local tax payers deserve a break. That is why the SNP will ensure that the increase in Council Taxes in April 2007 will be the last ever increase in the Council Tax. We shall use existing powers to place a ceiling on the level of council tax in every local authority across Scotland.

The level of Council Tax will therefore remain frozen for the two years that it will take to introduce a fairer local income tax based on the ability to pay.

It is time that local taxpayers received some relief from the Labour diet of annual council tax increases. Unlike Labour we shall give local council efficiency savings back to local taxpayers.

Regards,

Nicola Sturgeon