8. To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an estimate of the number of households whose council tax bills have risen this year. (S6O-02471)

Council tax is a local tax that is set and administered by individual local authorities. Each council has the capacity to set the council tax rate that is appropriate for the local authority area. Although council tax was increased in each council area, that was, in each case, below the rate of inflation at that time, according to the consumer prices index.

We provide a generous package of discounts, reductions and exemptions, including the council tax reduction scheme, which is based on the ability to pay and benefits more than 450,000 households, with more than 380,000 households paying no council tax as at March 2023.

Pensioners now disproportionately pay the highest rates of council tax, and nearly one in 10 people now pay the highest rates of income tax.

I will again put the question that Michael Marra asked as the minister did not quite answer it constructively. The damaging 22.5 per cent rise in council tax is nothing more than a raid on pension incomes. Will the Scottish National Party reconsider that increase as it is threatening to push thousands of people out of homes in which they have lived for decades just to make up for its gutting of local government funding over the years?

I will go back to what Jonathan Carr-West said on “Good Morning Scotland” this morning:

“I don’t want to minimise for Scottish councils” or for

“many of our members in Scotland who are feeling the pinch a bit now and are having to make tougher decisions than hitherto, but they are starting in a much more comfortable place than English local authorities that have had more than a decade of really savage funding cuts.”

The member has a brass neck.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

There are a couple of supplementaries, the first of which is from Kenny Gibson.

Will the minister advise how average council tax in Scotland compares with that in England under the Tories and with that in Wales under Labour?

Council tax is considerably lower in Scotland than elsewhere in the United Kingdom. [

Interruption

.] Every Scottish household benefits from cheaper council tax, and the average council tax bill in Scotland is £604 less than the average bill in England in 2023-24. [

Interruption

.] The average—

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Minister, I ask that you take your seat for a second.

Members, I know that there is a lot of interest in this issue, but it will help the proceedings if we can hear both the questions and the answers and if we do not have those on the front benches shouting at each other.

I ask the minister to resume.

Every Scottish household benefits from cheaper council tax, and the average council tax bill in Scotland is £604 less than the average bill in England in 2023-24. The average band D charge in Scotland is £648 less than that in England and £463 less than that in Wales.

Research that the TaxPayers’ Alliance published last month found that, as a proportion of average income, Scotland has the lowest council tax bills in the UK.

The SNP position on council tax has changed significantly over the past 16 years. It has moved from abolishing it to freezing it and now to making the biggest-ever hikes to it. I have sat through endless cross-party talking shops in this Parliament on reform of the council tax, but absolutely nothing has been done about it. When will the SNP deliver its promise from 16 years ago to abolish the unfair council tax?

The member will be aware that the joint working group, which involves the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, is looking at options for local government finance. However, an option is being considered right now that will bring extra money into local government and make the regressive council tax fairer. I hope that the member and his party will support that extra funding for local government.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

That concludes portfolio questions on finance and parliamentary business. There will be a brief pause before we move on to the next item of business, to allow a changeover of those on the front benches.