Following yesterday's First Minister's Questions, much consideration in today's press about the compatibility of Labour's proposals for increased council tax banding and the need for a revaluation. The First Minister appeared to be goaded by Ms Sturgeon into ruling out revaluation while maintaining that banding changes could nevertheless be on the agenda. Others have commented on the practicalities of this, bearing in mind the difficulties of basing a property tax system on property values which are more than 10 years old.
My concern would be about the First Minister making statements such as "There are no plans for a property revaluation in Scotland" and "The independent commission will make a judgment between systems that are based on income and systems that are based on property. If its judgment is for a property-based system, I think it needs to consider a better, more redistributive property-based system." In doing so, Mr McConnell is coming dangerously close to pre-empting the independent committee under Sir Peter Burt which has been set up to advise the Scottish Executive on the future of local government finance. What is the point of Sir Peter's Committee if the Scottish Executive has already made its mind up about what it will and will not do?
Would it not have been more statesmanlike for the First Minister to respond to Ms Sturgeon's taunts by adopting a lofty tone along the lines of awaiting the Committee's report in 2006 and avoiding any policy commitments at this stage?
The text of the official report is here.
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