Humza Yousaf announces council tax freeze to ease cost of living crisis

Humza Yousaf has announced a council tax freeze to help Scots cope with the cost of living crisis.

Delivering his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen, the First Minister said he had axed a proposal that would have seen bills rise by between 7.5 per cent and 22.5 per cent in the top four council tax bands, on top of the normal annual rises.

He argued this was his party “delivering for people when they need it the most” but did not rule out another income tax hike for the middle classes.

Mr Yousaf also used his first conference speech as party leader to make a series of domestic policy announcements in an attempt to reinvigorate his ailing government.

He will hope the council tax freeze helps reverse the sharp decline in the party’s poll ratings since he replaced Nicola Sturgeon in March. It will kick in next April, a month before a possible general election.

But the freeze triggered the first major policy split between the SNP and the Scottish Greens since they signed their power-sharing agreement.

Ross Greer, the Greens’ finance spokesman, warned the move could hit “already-strained frontline public services” and argued that social care, schools and early years centres “must not lose out”.

The announcement also appeared to contravene a “no surprises” clause in the power-sharing agreement between the two parties. Mr Yousaf’s official spokesman admitted the Greens had only been informed of the freeze on Tuesday morning.

The three-day conference was sparsely attended and there were scores of empty seats as he delivered his speech, despite it being staged in a smaller hall compared to the years of Ms Sturgeon’s leadership.

Mr Yousaf attempted to gee up his beleaguered party following its trouncing in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, which saw a vote swing of more than 20 percentage points to Labour.

He said: “We can either spend time feeling sorry for ourselves. Or we can take another course of action. Let me tell you what that is. We roll up our sleeves and we work harder than ever before for the people of Scotland.”

Bowing to widespread calls for council tax increases for Band E, F, G and H properties to be scrapped, Mr Yousaf said: “Council tax bills in Scotland are already hundreds of pounds a year lower than they are in England.

”We’re committed to fundamentally reforming local taxation and we will re-energise our work to do that. We have consulted on what level the council tax should be next year. And conference, we have reached our decision.”

He added: “I can announce to the people of Scotland that, next year, your council tax will be frozen. That’s the SNP delivering for people when they need it the most.”

After the SNP came to power in 2007, council tax rates were either frozen completely or capped at three per cent. However, this policy ended last year and local authorities allowed freedom to impose higher rises.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) council umbrella body made clear it was not consulted on the announcement, with a spokesman saying “we have just heard.”

He added: “We were unaware of it in advance. This has longer-term implications for all councils right across the country, at a time when we know there are acute financial pressures, and where we are jointly looking at all local revenue-raising options.”

Although she was not present for his speech, Mr Yousaf also delivered a gushing tribute to his predecessor and said: “Nicola Sturgeon transformed Scotland. She reformed Scotland’s public services.

”She improved the life chances of thousands of Scotland’s young people. And we will never forget that in the toughest of times our country faced, Nicola was the calmest of voices and the coolest of heads. So for all of this and more, we say thank you, Nicola.”

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