Fife council has confirmed that it will raise council tax by 8.2 per cent. The local authority met at 10am on Thursday morning to vote on next year’s budget and the tax increase.
The hike means it is one of many councils which have gone against John Swinney’s wishes for rises to be limited. The First Minister had previously said that 10 per cent was too high.
The administration is run by Labour despite the SNP having the biggest number of councillors.
The announcement comes on a bumper day for local authorities setting their rates for next year.
Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and the Borders councils are all meeting on Thursday to discuss their budgets for 2025-26 and to finalise their council tax plans. The Borders confirmed a 10 per cent hike on Thursday.
It comes after East Lothian became the first Scottish council to vote for an inflation-busting 10 per cent hike on Tuesday. The Labour-led council said the rise was needed to maintain public services.
The Scottish Government had recently lifted a freeze on the levy, but Swinney warned against big increases.
The First Minister said in a recent interview that his Government’s budget is positive for councils and means big rises are not needed.
Asked if 10 per cent is too high, he said: “I think it is, yes.” He added: “I don’t think that’s necessary, to be honest.”
Then first minister Humza Yousaf hastily announced a council tax freeze at the SNP’s conference in 2023. Swinney confirmed it had been lifted at the recent budget.
In a recent interview, Swinney has talked up his funding deal for councils: “I think if you had a quiet conversation with council leaders where they were not being bound by certain things, they would say to you, ‘We got a better settlement than we thought we were going to get’.
“I think that’s the case. That’s what they say to me as well in private moments – possibly, they might think these were reckless conversations to have with me, but they’ve had them. And I think as a consequence, that means council tax increases don’t need to be as high.”
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