Council tax and business rates in Scotland should be devolved in full to local authorities, think tank says.
Reform Scotland argues local democracy is undermined by the current local taxation system because it is out of the control of elected councillors.
The think tank believes this weakens the link between councillors and the people who elect them, thereby causing a loss of faith and a lack of participation in local politics and local elections.
In their Blueprint for Local Power, a manifesto which will be published next week, Reform Scotland calls for a complete devolution of council tax to councils.
They compare the Scottish government’s control over the level of council tax increase with that of previous Westminster Governments, and say individual councils should be in complete control of the bands and rates, whether and how it applied to second homes, and similar powers.
The Blueprint also calls for the full devolution of business rates which are currently set, pooled and redistributed by Holyrood.
‘Local democracy in Scotland is severely constrained because councils have insufficient power to do what they would like to do and are, therefore, not genuinely accountable to local voters,’ said Reform Scotland’s director Geoff Mawdsley.
‘In large part, that is because local authorities have almost no control over local taxation.’
‘If we truly believe that decisions should be made closer to those whom they affect, then we need to rejuvenate local democracy,’ Mr Mawdsley continued.
‘That’s why we want to see council tax and business rates devolved to local authorities in full - bands, rates, increases, cuts, applications, the lot.
‘Together with the money councils raise from rent, sales and charges, they would raise about half of their own spending with the remainder coming from the continuation of the General Revenue Grant.’
