Yousaf and Robison tell local leaders priority is still council tax freeze

The First Minister and his deputy have told local government leaders they are continuing to prioritise the council tax freeze, amid a dispute over funding arrangements.

Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister Shona Robison met representatives of the umbrella body Cosla on Friday in a bid to progress the talks.

Councils across Scotland have been offered a total of £147 million to compensate them for freezing council tax, a policy announced by Mr Yousaf at the SNP conference last year.

However Cosla has said councils should have the flexibility to set their own tax rates and they have raised issues under the Verity House Agreement – an earlier deal between Holyrood and town halls.

Following Friday’s meeting, Ms Robison said: “The First Minister and I had a constructive meeting with Cosla and we will continue to engage with them over the next month as part of the budget process.

“Good progress has already been made on parts of the Verity House Agreement, including increasing funding flexibility to councils and removing ring-fencing.

“In addition to the £147 million allocated in the Scottish Budget for the council tax freeze, the Scottish budget 2024-25 makes available record funding for local government with a 3.2% real-terms increase on this year’s Budget.

“We are clear though that the Scottish Government’s priorities remain the council tax freeze, which would benefit council tax-payers across Scotland, and protecting teacher numbers, which is an important part of closing the poverty-related attainment gap.”

Last week, council leaders held a special meeting to discuss the budget settlement.

Cosla resources spokeswoman Katie Hagmann said at the time: “Leaders expressed anger at the budget setting timetable which has left councils unable to set their budgets due to a lack of certainty from (the) Scottish Government and as a result of having to wait until (the) UK Government spring statement before knowing what additional funding could be passed on.

“In addition, there was a clear direction from leaders to seek restoration of the £63 million cut to the core local government budget on behalf of their communities and the essential services they rely on at the meeting with the (deputy first minister).

“Leaders also agreed that the council tax freeze should be on a voluntary basis with agreement that the £147 million, already earmarked by (the) Scottish Government for this purpose, is distributed to all councils with flexibility to raise council tax by up to 5%.

“There should also be no penalty or reduction in funding in line with the principles of the Verity House Agreement.”