Michael McMahon MSP is our Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government.

Local government & a fairer council tax
The concordat between the SNP and Scottish councils is damaging local democracy and local services. The Scottish Futures’ Trust has failed, meaning councils do not have the money they need to build schools and run services.

The concordat is unravelling – and the SNP refuse to respect it, by demanding more of local government by breaking their promises and blaming local government.

The council tax freeze means that councils have been forced to make cuts that they know will damage local services. For all their kind words, the SNP is not giving council they money they need to freeze council tax and enhance services.

Labour supports a property-based tax and we want to make council tax fairer – but we are totally opposed to the SNP’s unfair local income tax, which is a tax on work and families. The SNP dropped the local income tax because it doesn’t work – but now say they’ll fight the next election supporting it. We have a group of experts looking at how to do it, and will bring forward properly costed plans before the Scottish Parliament elections.