The SNP’s local government minister has been criticised after he claimed Humza Yousaf’s controversial council tax freeze would benefit Scotland’s “most vulnerable households.”

One council leader said the assertion from Joe FitzPatrick was simply "not true."

The minister was speaking to Holyrood’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee as part of their scrutiny into last month's budget.

Shona Robison increased the funding settlement for Scotland's councils to more than £14 billion.

However, a grim report from the Accounts Commission published on Monday said that the fiscal gap — the difference between funding and revenue and the cost of delivering services — is likely to be £725 million in 2023-24, up from £476 million in 2022-23.

READ MORE: Scottish councils facing 'unprecedented financial pressures'

An official from Colsa, the umbrella body for Scotland's 32 councils, told the committee that without the ability to make up the shortfall with council tax hikes, there would need to be "difficult conversations" about services. 

The freeze was announced by the First Minister in his speech to the SNP’s annual conference last October, catching councils and government partners, the Scottish Greens, by surprise.

He told party members it would bring “much needed financial relief to those households who are struggling in the face of rising prices.”

However, an analysis of the commitment by the IPPR said it would “make no difference to the budgets of thousands of low-income households,” as over 400,000 are already afforded some relief by the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme.

They said while some of the benefit “is indeed seen by households in poverty, they are much less likely to benefit from the council tax freeze than households with higher incomes.”

READ MORE: The ever growing bill for Humza Yousaf's council tax freeze

In a short statement to the committee at the start of the session, Mr FitzPatrick, The Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning, said the government appreciated that local government would have hoped for “a more favourable settlement” in December’s budget.

He added: “We continue to do all that we can to mitigate over a decade of UK Government underinvestment in public services.

“Despite the financial challenges faced we delivered record funding over £13.9 billion and made available a further £144 million to support reaching agreement with councils to freeze council tax in 24/25.”

The minister continued: “Although inflation is slowly falling, the damage caused by the UK Government's economic agenda of austerity and Brexit have hurt everyone, but particularly our most vulnerable households.

“So we believe that at a time when rising prices are putting significant strain on household finances, a council tax freeze will give some certainty to households over the next year. “

He said that by funding the freeze, the Scottish Government had “helped councils maintain services while ensuring that households are protected from increasing budgets.”

“And I know that local authorities share in our desire to help people across Scotland during these difficult times and the Scottish Government is hopeful that councils will be able to support this policy initiative locally,” he added.

Stephen McCabe, the Labour leader of Inverclyde council took to social media to question the minister’s claim.

“The Local Government Minister claims that the Council Tax freeze would benefit the most vulnerable households. That is not true. The most vulnerable households receive Council Tax Reduction and therefore don't benefit from a Council Tax freeze,” he tweeted.

READ MORE: Council tax freeze cash could have lifted 10,000 kids out of poverty

Earlier in the session, Mirren Kelly, Chief Officer, Local Government Finance, COSLA said research suggested people did not mind paying a bit extra to safeguard local services, such as swimming pools and libraries.

She said there needed to be “honest and open conversation with Scottish Government, with the public about the difficult choices that need to be made”.

“What do we want our public services to look like? Where do we prioritise this? And where does that mean, if there is not additional funding, where do we have to change what we do and potentially stop what we're doing?

“And that's that's the conversation that needs to be had.

“At the moment local government is looking at dealing with it as £63 million direct cut before dealing with any pay or inflation.

“To illustrate the challenge that pay has within the local government sector, a 1% pay rise costs £105 million.

“So any pay rise is over £100 million. So it's a really big, it's not a small issue.

“It's a big challenge, and it will be a difficult conversation. But I think those are the ones that we need to have and need to have honestly with the public as well.”

SNP councillor Katie Hagmann, who is the Resources Spokesperson for COSLA, “I recognise that we're in a cost of living crisis and the government is looking to support our hard working families who are paying council tax going forward.

“I recognise that this was a political decision going forward.

“However, if we go back to the point that Mirren had just need there, when we're looking at cuts to our services, there are times where communities don't mind paying that little bit extra to make sure that their services are safeguarded.”