A BUDDING MSP has drawn up draft legislation for getting rid of council tax in a bid to drive forward concrete discussions about introducing a fairer property levy in Scotland.
Math Campbell-Sturgess, who is fighting to become the SNP’s Holyrood candidate in Dumbarton, has put together what he calls his Local Taxation (Scotland) Bill which proposes ditching the Council Tax and allowing local authorities to replace it with a property tax based on the real market value of homes.
The bill would also allow councils to bring in other taxes they feel are appropriate to their area, such as a land tax.
Campbell-Sturgess told the Sunday National: “Local councils need more flexibility to act and the legislation that government produces on various levies isn’t always useful for every council.
“A bill that gives us all the power to introduce local taxes would allow for a much more agile and responsive taxation according to the needs of different areas.
“Not all areas need the same form of taxes but we all need more money to run services that people expect and deserve so this would allow, for instance, Shetland, to have a different approach on local taxation than Glasgow.”
While Campbell-Sturgess stressed he would not expect the bill to be adopted in its entirety, he hopes it will kickstart more solid discussions about overhauling local taxation.
“There’s been so many proposals around reforming local government taxation but they’re all just hypothetical. It’s a way of solidifying things and talking about the specifics,” he said.
Council Tax is currently based on outdated property valuations, with England and Scotland both using property values as assessed on April 1, 1991. This means that many people may be paying too much or too little tax because they are in the wrong band.
It is also a regressive tax where the more your home is worth, the less effective tax you pay.
Campbell-Sturgess (above) – who is an elected member for Helensburgh and Lomond South on Argyll and Bute Council – has proposed allowing councils to bring in a local property tax which would be calculated annually based on the market value of a home. The value would be determined by valuation joint boards.
The rate would be expressed as a percentage of the market value of the property, which Campbell-Sturgess has proposed should not exceed 3%.
The bill also proposes exemptions and reliefs from a local property tax including for people aged over 65, those on low incomes and people who live in homes undergoing substantial refurbishment or repair.
Campbell-Sturgess said: “The Council Tax is an unjust tax, it takes no account of people’s ability to pay and, while there’s various loopholes and exemptions that try to address that, they don’t do a very good job.
“It also means that for properties on the higher end, you can have a three-bedroom house in Glasgow and the Council Tax on it is the same as a countryside mansion because it’s the same band.
“The Council Tax is a great example of legislation that’s just been picked away at and added to and removed and amended so many times it’s a mess.
“This local property tax means everyone is paying a slightly fairer amount for their property. We’d be getting more income from those at the higher end who currently pay very little compared to the value of their property.”
The other key proposal in Campbell-Sturgess’s bill is to allow councils to introduce a land tax on undeveloped land, which would also be calculated annually based on the market value of the land and capped at 3%.
The bill proposes exemptions for land under two hectares, Crown and Ministry of Defence land, and land used for crofting or agricultural purposes.
“It incentivises people to bring land into use and that brings more money for the local economy,” Campbell-Sturgess said.
“If it is just land that’s lying empty like grouse moors, that money can be used by the local authority to pursue other things.
“It would allow local councils to reflect local circumstances. Glasgow City Council probably doesn’t need a tax on undeveloped land but the likes of Highland or Argyll and Bute will have land sitting empty and that income coming in would be useful for building houses and helping local businesses.”
While Campbell-Sturgess envisages the property and land tax would be adopted more or less across the board, the bill would allow councils to more freely apply taxes that reflect the unique needs of the area.
One of the examples the SNP councillor has given in the bill is a transport infrastructure tax, which could be applied to the transportation of goods produced in a certain area which are taken out of it by heavy goods vehicles. This would offset the cost of maintaining infrastructure and mitigating environmental damage.
Campbell-Sturgess added: “The bill allows for a fairer taxation system that takes into account the needs of the local population. It also means that it’s accountable to that local population because if the council brings in a tax the locals don’t like, they can vote out that council and replace them.
“If a tax is nationally imposed and it only badly affects one area, it would be a lot harder for that one council area to have a national law changed.”
