Meeting of the Parliament 19 December 2018
Almost 950,000 people in Scotland receive a discount for their water. For the overwhelming majority of those people, the discount is worth 25 per cent of the total bill, which is a lot of money. For the average band D house, that discount is worth £109 a year.
In the summer, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on changing the discount. That change, which has so far received little attention from the Parliament, is the focus of my members’ business debate this evening. I am happy to clarify at the start that the change was suggested by the Scottish Government and not by Scottish Water.
In a nutshell, the Scottish Government wants to increase the water discount for those receiving council tax reduction. That is welcome—I have no problem with that. However, the Government wants to pay for it by taking away the council tax discount from half a million single people.
That is nothing short of an attack on single older people, who might be living alone because they are widowed, and might have a small works pension that means that they do not qualify for council tax reduction. They will find it difficult to manage.
It is an attack on single parents who struggle to manage bringing up children on one income.
It is an attack on half a million people who rely on getting that discount; they will be penalised simply because they live alone.
There is an argument that someone who lives alone will use less water than a household of, say, four people, but there also seems to be an assumption that people who live alone have considerable resources. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the Fraser of Allander institute noted that there are poor people in every council tax band.