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Professor calls on government to end council tax freeze

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Published Date: 06 June 2009
By Katrine Bussey
THE Scottish Government has been urged to scrap the council tax freeze.
For the last two years the SNP has funded local authorities specifically so they do not have to increase council tax charges.

But public finance expert Professor Arthur Midwinter said yesterday that funding should end and the Scottish Government
's priority should be protecting public investment and employment.

Prof Midwinter said: "The council tax freeze should be dropped."

He also called for the "underfunded spending commitments" in the concordat deal between the Scottish Government and councils to be axed.

Prof Midwinter, speaking at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations' conference in Glasgow, said that since 2007 the SNP government had "failed to prioritise effectively". And he said savings targets had "resulted in cuts in frontline services".

Prof Midwinter, a visiting professor in the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research at Edinburgh University, said resources will be "tight".

However, a Scottish Government spokesman said: "As families feel the effects of these tough economic times, a council tax freeze is absolutely right for Scotland."





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  • Last Updated: 05 June 2009 9:59 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

,

06/06/2009 00:05:01
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

Brianwci,

06/06/2009 01:01:38
Arthur Midwinter's credibility is every bit as good as Messrs Madox and Macdonell (or whatever), so naturally we should all pay the greatest of attention to what this eminent gentleman has to say.........NOT!!!
3

KampungHighlander,

Jakarta 06/06/2009 06:26:40
Note to Scotsman:

Just because someone holds the title Professor doesn't mean they have a clue what their talking about.

You seem to trot out these so called academic experts on a daily basis to try an bolster your failed anti SNP arguments.

What you fail to do, at the cost of what little credibility you have left as journalists, is disclose these peoples political attachments and the axes they have to grind.

Most Labour supporters may be impressed by their academic titles, since almost all have never attended any sort of higher learning. But most people who have attended University would know from meeting these academics that they would be incapable of running a booze up in a brewery, let alone a country.

Their opinions should be taken for what they are, the opinions of people with no real world experience.
4

The Tin Man,

06/06/2009 09:06:04
The SNP government has "failed to prioritise effectively", and they do have "underfunded spending commitments" in the concordat deal.

Whatever anyone's views of a particular economist, the facts remain the facts. We have an exec that has had to provide record central funding to local government, because local taxation has been cut by the inflation rate for 3 years running. In return, they lost the ability to implement their policies.

The only thing they have left is the ability to spout 'we're providing record funding' at all oppertunities.
5

mr broon,

Edinburgh 06/06/2009 09:52:13
Previous Labour and Tory governments know only too well
that no matter how much you fund local authorities, of whatever political colour, they still decide to do something completely different with the money.

In its concordat with COSLA, the minority Nationalist government has been taken in by these profligate local politicians!
6

Dave From Barra,

Western Isles 06/06/2009 10:26:35
"Professor calls on government to end council tax freeze"

Um, no thanks. I'm pretty squeezed as it is. Besides, my council would only squander it on flower junkets to Dubai or some other silly f_kcing thing instead of spending on real and tangible services.
7

drunken proffet,

Tassy 06/06/2009 11:54:30
You really have to look at the time when the councils were alive and open to introduce cost increases. Being Scotland, and Socialist, it was pretty mundane. About forty years ago, if you had a business or worked for yourself, hard luck. Now a days they accept that even Labour voters actually run their own businesses.
8

alanh,

ek 06/06/2009 12:10:48
should that headline not read " Nu liebore sleaze and spin , north brittian dept, party advisor calls on govt to end council tax freeze"?
Has his party worked out their position on council tax yet or is it still a secret???
9

Jan juhass,

uk 06/06/2009 14:27:28
-------------------------------------------------------
Make IQ Test for the United Kingdom 2009! http://iq-test.co.uk/#30192
-------------------------------------------------------
10

Alan B,

06/06/2009 16:42:20
Does the scotsman just try to be ridiculous. Why not be honest and say labour in scotland want to raise tax in a recession.

 

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