First Minister John Swinney has refused to say if the Scottish Government will seek to freeze council tax next year, as he promised local authority leaders he would have “an open and candid conversation” with them as part of the budget process.

Mr Swinney insisted both he and his Finance Secretary Shona Robison would be involved in “substantive engagement on the budget process” with the country’s councils.

Local government leaders had been angered when Mr Swinney’s predecessor, former first minister Humza Yousaf, had announced he wanted to freeze council tax charges across Scotland in 2024-25 without first consulting local government chiefs on the move.

While the freeze was eventually implemented, the move soured relationships between the Scottish Government and councils.

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Mr Swinney however was keen to tell council leaders that he wants to see “effective collaboration and partnership with local government in Scotland”.

He stressed that in the “most difficult financial times I have known”, local and national government “can’t afford not to work together”.

Mr Swinney went on to tell council leaders from across Scotland: “My commitment to you is we will operate with respect for local government, we will engage in early dialogue on our plans and our priorities, we will take forward substantive engagement on the budget process.”

His comments came at the annual conference of the local government body Cosla – where one delegate asked the First Minister directly if the Scottish Government would seek to impose either a freeze on council tax next year, or if ministers would look to impose a cap on how much authorities could raise charges by.

The First Minister however said that these are “obviously issues for the budget process” which the Scottish Government is about to embark on.

But he told the conference, taking place in Crieff, Perthshire: “I have given you my assurance there will be an engaged process with local government and we will listen with care and engage substantively on the issues in the budget.”

With the UK Government set to announce its Budget on October 30, and the Scottish Government’s draft budget to be revealed just over a month later on December 4, Mr Swinney said there would be “an open and candid conversation” with local government.

The First Minister said: “I am committed, and the Finance Secretary is committed, to an engaged process of preparing the budget so we understand and appreciate and can reflect to the greatest extent possible the financial challenges that are faced by local government in the setting of the budget for 2025-26.”

However he also insisted the Scottish Government was “doing what it can to properly and fully support the funding of local authorities”.

Mr Swinney said the money given to councils by the Scottish Government had increased by £575 million this year.

He also spoke of the government’s “determination and commitment to work co-operatively with local government” to ensure a deal is reached over council pay.

While the First Minister said there were issues which “remain to be resolved”, he spoke of the “government’s determination and commitment to work co-operatively with local government in taking all of these pay deals to a solution”.

Those comments came after workers at Scotland’s largest local government union Unison voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest pay offer from employers earlier this month.