Opportunity to replace council tax 'must not be missed'
A commission set up to look at alternatives to the council tax will say the opportunity for reform ``must not be missed'' as it sets out its findings.
A commission set up to look at alternatives to the council tax will say the opportunity for reform must not be missed'' as it sets out its findings.
The Commission on Local Tax Reform will outline the pros and cons of a range of options for replacing the tax currently paid by 2.4 million households.
It was set up jointly by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) to look at fairer alternatives'' to the council tax, which has been frozen since 2007.
However, the report will not come out in favour of any one option, instead urging political parties to put forward their proposals ahead of next year's Holyrood election.
It is being published days before Finance Secretary John Swinney unveils his Budget for the 2016-17 financial year.
The commission is expected to say that the prospect of reform is an opportunity that must not be missed''.
Writing in the report's introduction, Local Government Minister Marco Biagi and Cosla president David O'Neill, who co-chaired the commission, will say: We do not advocate a single preferred alternative (to council tax) as that ultimately must be a political choice, but we do expect that Scotland will be offered alternative systems of local taxation in the Scottish parliamentary election in May 2016.
Our intention is that this report serves to inform the design of those alternatives - by any political party - and most importantly, also helps the public understand the implications of the choices they are offered.''
The commission received nearly 5,000 pieces of evidence from individuals and organisations during its work, which included oral evidence sessions, an online questionnaire and a series of public events across Scotland.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: We established the commission with cross-party membership to look into the future of local taxation and to set out options for the public and politicians to consider.
We believe that the current system of council tax is unfair, and are pleased to be working with opposition parties to find an agreed way forward.''