Inverclyde defies Humza Yousaf's freeze plan and raises council tax

It means the bill for a Band D home will rise £127 a year from £1,429 to £1,547.

As part of a two-year budget, the tax will rise by a further 6% in 2025/26.

The rises are on top of a 5.3% tax rise in 2023/24, meaning a 21% rise over three years in Inverclyde.

The vote was a further blow to the First Minister and his finance secretary Shona Robison, who had been trying for months to achieve a nation-wide freeze.

Inverclyde council leader Stephen McCabe said the idea of a nationally-directed tax freeze was “wholly undemocratic”, as the decision was for councils, not ministers.

The Scottish Government’s plan was irresponsible, shameful, vindictive and an affront to democracy, he said, and would ultimately cost Inverclyde money.

He said a rise of 8.2% was "prudent and responsible" to safeguard public services, but admitted it would not be universally popular.

He said 28% of the lowest income homes in the council would not pay any more.

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Labour's motion was passed by 11 votes to 9 with two abstentions around 630pm.

Mr Yousaf announced plans to keep the tax static at the SNP conference last October, ostensibly to help people with the cost of living.

However the move - which took councils by surprise - was widely seen as a panicked response to the SNP’s losing the Rutherglen & Hamilton West byelection days earlier.

Mr Yousaf and Ms Robison promised the freeze would be “fully funded” and offered Scotland’s 32 councils £147m between them to offset a 5% rise in the tax.

But after councils pushed back hard and demanded more money, Ms Robison last week admitted her initial offer was insufficient.

She then offered councils a further £62.7m, but said authorities would only get a share of the funding if they froze the levy.

In addition, £45m of the extra money was said to be conditional on Barnett formula monies resulting from the UK Government spending money on councils in England.

Argyll & Bute raised the tax regardless.

Inverclyde’s Labour leader Stephen McCabe also urged UK Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove to bypass Holyrood and send the Barnett money directly to councils, an idea backed by the Labour leader of West Dunbartonshire, Martin Rooney.

During the budget debate at Inverclyde Council today, Mr McCabe claimed his Labour colleagues had urged him to freeze the tax, leading to criticism from the SNP.

Mr McCabe said: “I stand up to my party. I get phone calls saying we shouldn’t be raising council tax, but I told my party leadership we will make the decisions, not them.”

Inverclyde SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said: "Anas Sarwar has totally lost control of his party. "The SNP introduced a fully funded council tax freeze to support households through the cost of living crisis. 

"Thanks to pressure from the SNP, Anas Sarwar agreed with this policy.

"If Labour councillors are openly defying orders from their leader in Scotland, and bragging about it, Anas Sarwar must come forward and outline what action he will take against them. 

"It is totally inappropriate that despite receiving funding to freeze council tax, labour councils across Scotland are considering hammering household budgets already struggling in the cost of living crisis with unnecessary tax rises."