Scots council tax commission ‘unlikely to reach consensus’, says minister

Photo: Great Scot Photography

Biagi said that the commission, which he co-chairs with David O’Neill, president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was instead expected to offer a range of options when it reports in the autumn.

It would then be for the political parties to take forward their preferred system into the 2016 Holyrood election campaign. But he expected the work of the Commission to impact on the next Scottish government ‘whoever that may be’, and he made clear that the current council tax freeze, subsidised by government, would necessarily have a finite lifespan.

The minister predicted that the commission was likely to come up with ‘three or four workable alternatives to the council tax’. But it was, he said, ‘unimaginable’ that the commission would come down in favour of retaining the present council tax, which was “fundamentally not progressive”.

All the political parties except the Conservatives, who have set up their own commission, are represented on the commission, as are an array of experts including Don Peebles, head of CIPFA Scotland. Biagi urged all CIPFA Scotland members to contribute views and ideas to the commission.

He said that the purpose of the commission would be to produce evidence-based analysis of a range of options, applying Adam Smith’s famous four tests that a tax should have certainty, convenience, efficiency of collection and a burden on individuals proportionate to their ability to pay. It would also consider issues of administrative transition to the respective options.

The commission would, he said, take both written and oral expert evidence, and would proactively consult the wider public through an online survey and a series of roadshows. ‘My expectation is that the path of the commission will take shape as we gather this evidence,’ he said.