The SNP administration of Dundee City Council is “very confident” of achieving a council tax freeze in Dundee again next year.
Willie Sawers, the SNP group’s finance spokesman, made the prediction following an announcement at the party’s conference in Perth on Thursday that money would be found to continue the freeze for the next two years.
The two-year pledge goes beyond the next Scottish Parliament elections and would be dependent on the SNP retaining power at Holyrood.
Speaking from the conference, Mr Sawers said the SNP administration in Dundee was very happy with the decision to continue funding a council tax freeze across Scotland.
“We are very confident of delivering a council tax freeze in Dundee next year,” he said.
Mr Sawers said it was right, at a time of great economic hardship for many people, that they should try, to some extent, to alleviate the financial burden by avoiding a rise in council tax.
The SNP government has funded a council tax freeze for the last three years by making £70 million available to Scotland’s 32 local authorities, provided they did not increase the tax.
In Dundee’s case, there has been a freeze for four years the city council having decided not to impose a rise even before the extra money was available.
Leaders of the other political groups on the council have questioned whether it will be possible or justifiable to continue the council tax freeze.
Labour group leader Kevin Keenan said he did not believe continuing the freeze was sustainable at a time when the council is facing having to find £40 million of savings over the next three years.
“I think this will turn out to be the next big promise that the SNP will break,” he said. “Of course, we should try to deliver the lowest council tax we can while maintaining services but I believe the sheer scale of the cuts we’re having to make mean it is inevitable that services will be affected.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Fraser Macpherson said it should be up to councils to decide their spending priorities rather than having them dictated by central government. If there was money available, it should be given to local authorities to use as they saw fit, without being conditional on freezing council tax.
“There are differing priorities in different areas and councils are best placed to make decisions on what is best for their own area,” he said.
That view was echoed by Conservative group leader Rod Wallace, who added that he was far from convinced maintaining the freeze was achievable in the current financial climate.
“The SNP nationally are coming out with this as a vote-catching exercise to combat (Labour leader) Iain Gray’s statement that a council tax freeze isn’t affordable,” he said. “If we weren’t in such dire straits, I would welcome the freeze continuing but in the current financial climate I don’t think it will work.”
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user alancleaver_2000.