Almost all Scottish councils have confirmed they will back their Government's proposed council tax freeze this year. Scottish finance secretary, John Swinney, appears to have won universal backing for his plan to keep local tax rates down during the recession by threatening to withdraw cash from any local authorities whose tax rises exceed inflation. The tax freeze has been viewed as a pyrrhic victory for Mr Swinney, who was last week forced to dump his long-term plan to replace council tax with a local income tax. From 14 February, 27 of Scotland's 32 local authorities had confirmed they would freeze council tax rates this year. If all authorities back the plan, it will be the second successive year in which local taxes have remained stable. Senior COSLA officials said the freeze was a reaction to the Scottish Government's warning that it would punish, financially, those authorities which breached inflation-based settlements funded by its own £70m payment to local government. But Neil Fletcher, COSLA vice president, also warned that the Government's limited payment could hinder councils as the recession took hold. ‘The money [from the Government] is more than inflation, but less than any council will need during the current economic conditions,' he said. The Scottish Government was forced to drop plans to replace council tax with a 3p local income tax on 11 February, after failing to win enough support at Holyrood. The policy was a key tenet of the Scottish Nationalist Party's election campaign. Labour's finance spokesman, Andy Kerr, said the climbdown was the ‘biggest retreat in the history of the parliament'. Mr Swinney blamed ‘swingeing' tax cuts from Westminster for undermining his plan to reduce other taxes.
