The SNP Government has plans to initiate a revaluation of council tax bands in Scotland.
A revaluation would result in many local households in Eastwood losing even more of their hard-earned cash to fund a further significant council tax increase and as the Scottish Conservative MSP for the constituency, I am alarmed at this unwanted prospect.
In previous months, the SNP Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee confirmed that it is the intention of the current Scottish Government to take forward a revaluation exercise.
In a radio interview with the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme towards the end of June, the SNP Minister candidly said on council tax bands that, “There’s absolutely a need for revaluation, and plans for that are being worked on just now.”
Mr McKee’s open admission in a national interview with the BBC that work is taking place on plans for a council tax revaluation means there can be no doubting the SNP’s intentions.
The SNP are determined to take forward the revaluation exercise so homeowners in Eastwood and across Scotland are forced to pay even more in council tax.
The Minister’s comments to the BBC have well and truly let the cat out of the bag about what his government is planning.
In the radio interview, Mr McKee was also at pains to stress on a revaluation of council tax bands, “The reality of that is that there will be winners and losers, and that’s really important to recognise.”
The council tax banding of many properties in Eastwood means the “reality” to use the Minister’s own words is that a considerable number of local households would not be “winners” through a revaluation of council tax bands but would instead fall into the “losers” category.
Starting with a centrally imposed large-scale council tax increase of between 7.5 percent to 22.5 percent for band E to H properties by the Scottish Government in 2017, council tax bills for people in Eastwood have skyrocketed over the past decade.
Indeed, in seven of the previous nine financial years, there has been a council tax increase for local households.
An SNP revaluation exercise would result in further financial pain for hard-working families in Eastwood and with people paying even greater amounts of their earnings on local taxation.
To make the council tax increases of previous years even worse, the higher bills have not been to invest in local services but simply to soften, as best as possible, the impact of ongoing and severe SNP Government cuts to East Renfrewshire Council.
For the SNP to then compound this situation with an intent for a revaluation exercise and the prospect that bills will go up even more sharply is unfair and unacceptable.
Such an exercise would deliver a serious financial punishment for so many families and households across the constituency.
As the Scottish Conservative MSP for Eastwood, I am robustly opposed to the efforts of the SNP to have you pay even more in local taxation through a revaluation of council tax bands.
I will continue to stand firmly against the SNP Government’s plans.
