Proposal for radical overhaul to Edinburgh's council tax system

Council tax in Edinburgh could rise more depending on your band

Author: Lewis MichiePublished 20th Feb 2023

A proposal to overhaul Edinburgh's council tax system has been tabled by the SNP group in the city.

The changes which they say would be "fairer" would mean those living in more valuable properties would see a bigger rise in their bill.

Those in the middle would see a small jump in their costs, for example bands C and D would have a 3% increase.

And those in bands A and B would have their council tax bill frozen completely.

Councillor Marco Biagi tells Forth News:

"Our proposals are to make the council tax system in Edinburgh a bit fairer and protect our services by raising money in a fairer way, especially our schools, which have been threatened with some cuts from the administration.

"We're proposing to create an automatic discount for all households, below band H, that's in the bottom seven bands, to bring the council tax rates down so that we can make sure that the people at the bottom and people in the middle aren't being asked to pay anywhere near as much."

The revenue generated by these increases, according to the SNP, would go towards various areas - but most crucially the group want some of that cash to be used to avert proposed cuts to education in the local authority.

Mr Biagi continued: "The education cuts are the biggest ones that have come forward from the council so far as proposals, the cash that we would raise would be enough to avert those.

"It would be enough to do other projects like saving the king's theatre, increasing funding for rape crisis centres, we want to reinstate a bike hire scheme, there's a whole range of things that this money would fund, all of which are really, really important to people of Edinburgh."

Councillors will take to the City Chambers on Thursday (February 23) to decide on the budget for the forthcoming year.

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