Meeting of the Parliament 27 February 2025
It is absolutely ridiculous that we have a valuation system that was set up when I was in primary 1. I am not sure whether Ross Greer had even been born when that valuation exercise was undertaken. The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee is looking at a revaluation exercise being a first step in reform of the council tax system, and I think that there is broad consensus across the political spectrum on that.
We are seeing councils across the country putting up council tax. It is a hugely unpopular tax, but councillors are making decisions to increase it because the alternative is absolutely unpalatable. The cuts that they would need to make to services would go beyond what they are willing to consider, so they are making unpopular decisions on council tax to cover for those cuts. However, there is a real risk in the fact that, because of successive years of SNP cuts, councils are now making impossible choices and increasing council tax to try to prevent their residents from having to pay more money for worse services as a result of Government choices.
15:15