MINISTERS will come under growing pressure to overhaul council tax when the trade union movement step up demands this week over local government funding reform.

The three day STUC congress, which will be addressed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tomorrow (mon) and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on Tuesday, will calls from delegates arguing for the need for radical change.

They come amid tensions between councils - which employ thousands of trade union members - and the Scottish Government over funding for frontline services such as education, social work, as well as road and park maintenance.

At the congress, being held in Aberdeen, one of the UK’s largest unions Unison, will be among those demanding an “urgent” shake-up of councils’ economic powers and will urge ministers to give more financial clout - such as the tourist levy - to local government.

READ MORE: STUC to ramp up pressure on ministers over nuclear power

“The need for reform of the council tax remains urgent,” the Unison motion says.

“It is essential that a property tax element should be retained, and local authorities should have greater discretion to introduce taxes to meet local circumstances and needs (e.g. tourism taxes).”

The motion refers to the Scottish Government’s admiration of the economic models of small European countries and points out that these nations generate substantially more revenue through taxes than Scotland. It points out that countries raising more funds through tax tend to generate more revenue locally.

“This Congress notes that total tax revenues are significantly lower in Scotland than in many of the smaller European nations consistently invoked as models for Scotland. These nations also tend to have lower inequalities of income and wealth.Congress also notes that data suggests those nations collecting more tax at a local level, consistently manage to collect higher total tax revenues.

READ MORE: Call to 'redeploy' axed DWP staff to Scots social security teams

“Scotland and the UK are heavily centralised in this respect with local taxes being a far smaller part of the overall tax taken than most other countries.”

Reforming council tax was promised by the SNP back in 2007 but plans have yet to materialise. Last month the SNP revealed they have no plans to bring forward the 15-year-old commitment until at least 2026 despite their partners in government the Scottish Greens believing the charge is “not fit for purpose”.

SNP Public Finance Minister Tom Arthur  told a Holyrood committee he could not give “a concrete timescale” for reforming the tax, but added that it remained “a key priority” for the Scottish Government.

He admitted there were “a range of options” that could be drawn up – ranging from “relatively minor changes” to “significant and fundamental reform” and said a citizens’ assembly would be set up to consider the way forward.

The Scottish Greens, in their manifesto ahead of last May’s Holyrood election stressed they “will seek to replace it with a new residential property tax that is related to actual value rather than outdated valuations”.

A report published by the think tank the IPPR Scotland last year said the council tax is unfair as low to middle income families pay the most as a proportion of income and higher value properties pay the least as a proportion of value.

STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer told the Herald on Sunday: “STUC Annual Congress sets the tone for the trade union movement for the next year.

“Workers are angry, empowered and seeking change for their communities.  It’s correct therefore that we have this debate on the future of local authority finance. 

“The status quo is not good enough. STUC has been abundantly clear in its local election manifesto that the Scottish Government must urgently reform council tax.

“Our public services – and crucially our public sector workers – have been starved of proper funding for too long.

“Amid a cost-of-living crisis with workers emerging from a pandemic, it’s correct that local authorities should be able to take matters into their own hands if necessary, giving greater discretion to introduce taxes that meet local circumstances.”

Scottish Conservative Shadow Local Government Secretary Miles Briggs said: “Calls are regularly made to overhaul council tax, but many of these alternatives would potentially end up costing households hundreds or even thousands of pounds more in local tax bills.

“That’s the last thing they need at a time of a cost-of-living crisis. Scottish Conservative Councillors elected next month will be fully focused on keeping council tax increases as low as possible.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Despite continued economic uncertainty facing us all due to the pandemic, we are treating councils fairly and providing a real terms increase of 6.3% to local authority budgets for the coming year.

“Funding for local government in future years will be determined as part of the Scottish Government’s current Resource Spending Review.

“As set out in the Programme for Government, we are committed to establishing a working group with representation from the Scottish Green Party, and engaging with Cosla, to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, including council tax. This work will culminate in a citizens’ assembly. We will set timescales for completion of this work within the current parliamentary session.”