North-east council leaders have announced plans to end a nine-year council tax freeze and increase the levy by 2.5% on all households.
Aberdeenshire Council’s SNP and Labour Partnership coalition unveiled its budget proposals yesterday in a bid to tackle a £24million black hole in the authority’s coffers.
For the first time in nearly a decade, local authorities across Scotland have been given the option of raising council tax by up to 3% on all bands. A national increase in tax on bands E to H has already been approved.
Under Aberdeenshire Council’s new proposals, taxpayers in bands A to D will pay around £25 more a year. The policy will raise an extra £3million for the authority.
Other proposals include slashing £1million from both roads maintenance and waste collection budgets, and councillors hope to save £400,000 by creating a charitable trust to manage sports facilities.
However, co-leaders Richard Thomson and Alison Evison have offered assurances there will be no compulsory redundancies.
The announcement came only hours before a compromise deal was struck between the SNP government and the Scottish Green Party in Holyrood, which gave more cash to councils.
Aberdeenshire will receive an extra £8.2million as part of its core settlement from the Scottish Government, a concession to alleviate the effects of a controversial rise in business rates.
Nonetheless, Mr Thomson and Mrs Evison said last night their budget proposals still stand and will be reviewed only when a final national budget is agreed.
SNP leader, Mr Thomson said: “People have had the council freeze for nine years and I think that’s been a tremendous boon for a lot of families in what have been difficult economic times.”
“After nine years, the time is right to look again at the council tax. We’ve put that 2.5% proposal there. Inevitably, some services are going to be delivered in a different way, but this is a budget that strikes the best balance between competing tensions.”
Labour leader Mrs Evison echoed her counterpart’s support for scrapping the council tax freeze.
She added: “Council tax is not perfect by any means and there are alternative ways of raising local government money, but this is the mechanism we have, the mechanism we’ve been given and the mechanism we have to use to do that.
“Our proposal is firm. There are no compulsory redundancies associated with our budget proposals. We value our staff, we value the work they do in communities and in delivering services.
“The proposals have no compulsory redundancies associated with them.”
Green councillor, Martin Ford, welcomed the extra money for local government which came as part of a deal his colleagues struck with the SNP in parliament.
He said: “I am relieved and delighted that, at the eleventh hour, additional government funding has been secured for next year for Aberdeenshire Council.
“Clearly, the council will now be able to re-visit the budget proposals just published and, at the very least, take out some of the proposed cuts to services.”
The authority will meet on Thursday to vote on the administration’s proposals. Leaders of the opposition Alliance group confirmed they will present an alternative budget, but no details have been revealed.