News that one of the Scottish Tories most senior local government figures has today publicly called for the scrapping of the council tax freeze in Scotland has exposed the divisions within the Tories on the issue and looks set to come as an embarrassment to the senior Tories at Holyrood and Westminster.

The Tory Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Councillor Ivor Hyslop today called for the Council to “actively lobby for the flexibility to determine their own rate of Council tax”, rather than the existing SNP imposed freeze at a meeting of the Council’s Corporate Policy Committee.

The move from Councillor Hyslop, who is also Leader of the Tory Group on COSLA, comes despite a campaign from Scottish Tories to keep the council tax freeze and similar UK Government plans to impose a freeze in England.

The call comes just weeks after the Scottish Tory Finance spokesperson and South of Scotland MSP Derek Brownlee warned against ending the imposed freeze.

The astonishing move from Councillor Hyslop today has the full backing of the Tory Group on COSLA who have called for Councillor Hyslop to meet with the Tory Group of MSPs and tell them that they must not make a council tax freeze a “red line” in forthcoming budget discussions with the Scottish Government.
 
Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government Michael McMahon MSP said:

“This extraordinary revelation has exposes just how split the Tories are on the council tax freeze.   

“On the one hand you have David Cameron forcing councils to freeze the council tax in England and Tory MSPs campaigning for a freeze in Scotland while on the other hand their very own local authority colleagues are attacking that very same policy.
   
“Calling for the SNP to end the imposition of a top down freeze and to allow Councils to decide their own council tax completely contradicts their own party policy and is likely to leave a number of senior Tories red-faced.
  
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the Tories are all over the place on this issue.
  
“Councillor Hyslop’s call is an astonishing admission that the SNP and Tory cuts so severe that he wants the right to consider raising taxes to try and stop the damage the SNP and his own Government are making.

“Time and again the SNP have expected local government to take all the pressure and make all the difficult choices while the SNP hide.
 
“The SNP tried to use the council tax freeze for their own party political advantage but they always knew it was unsustainable and underfunded and has already led to cuts in teachers and other services even before Scotland faces the onslaught on public service by the Tory Lib Dem coalition.
  
“John Swinney needs to remove the gun from councillor’s head and give them the freedom to protect our children’s education and other vital services.”

7 September 2010