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Council Tax Discounts

Scottish Labour is committed to making council tax fairer by increasing the number of bands at both the top and bottom of the scales.

Whilst also making council tax fairer, Scottish Labour also wants to use at as a tool to encourage people to be more environmentally friendly by giving people council tax discounts for recycling their rubbish and making their homes more energy efficient.

Scottish Labour and strongly opposes the local income tax proposed by the SNP and the Liberal Democrats. An independent review states that in order to just maintain current levels of public spending, the local income tax would have to be set at 6.5%.

Instead of paying a fixed sum in council tax, money would be deducted from your salary twice: first by the government and then again by the council.

Hard-working families would be worst hit, with many having to pay over £800 more than at present. Older people, those on housing benefit, and people living alone would lose their discounts.

A report last year said any local income tax would have to be set at the sky-high rate of 6.5p in the £1 to give councils the same income they enjoy now.

Realising how hard that would hit ordinary people, the SNP and Lib Dems said they would cap the rate at between 3p - 4p. But that would leave councils facing a £1 billion funding shortfall.

They refuse to tell us which services they would cut as a results of their damaging plans.