Councils across the north-east have raised more than £18million in council tax this year, but have lost around £17million in Scottish Government funding, according to new research by the Conservatives.
Tory number-crunchers calculated Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus and Moray collectively saw a total tax increase of £18.7million between 2016-17 and 2017-18 after the Holyrood mandated rise in bands E to H.
But the money the councils then received to pay for services went down by a total of £17.02million.
Aberdeen raised an extra £6.5m, but lost £7m in funding, Aberdeenshire raised around £8.8m and lost £5.98m and Moray raised £1.4m and lost £2m.
Last night, senior councillors called for the Scottish Government to put forward a fairer model.
Aberdeenshire council leader Jim Gifford, Conservative, said: “We have been saying for years that Aberdeenshire gets a bad deal from the SNP government, and these figures prove it.
“The SNP are selling us short to the tune of several million pounds.”
Aberdeen finance convener and Tory group leader Douglas Lumsden added: “These figures show once again that Aberdeen is not a priority for the SNP.
“We are the lowest funded council in Scotland with a huge gap between the amount that is raised locally and what we receive in government support. ”
City council leader Jenny Laing, Labour, added: “These figures starkly highlight how, even if more money is raised locally, then the Scottish Government cut the grant to the council accordingly.”
But Aberdeen South SNP candidate Callum McCaig said: “The Tories are just trying to cover up the fact that they have short-changed the north-east for many years.
“Not content with taking countless billions of pounds in revenue from the region’s oil wealth and failing to give it back, the Conservatives have failed to match the SNP Government’s funding of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, where we are delivering £125million towards the deal itself, with an additional £254 million investment on top of that.
“In addition, we have delivered new facilities for the north-east, as well as ongoing major spending on projects such as the £745million AWPR, all of which is boosting jobs and the economy of the area.”
The other candidates in Aberdeen South are: Callum O’Dwyer (Lab), Ross Thomson (Cons) and Jenny Wilson (Lib Dem).