Edinburgh Green councillors propose 4.3 per cent council tax rise

Green councillors in Edinburgh are proposing a 4.3 per cent council tax rise to fund key services in the city.

The party says this increase – equivalent to an extra 97p a week for an average Band D property – would raise an extra £10m to spend on key service such as schools, social care and support for children.

Proposals for using the extra £10m revenue include retaining a fully-funded school music service, blocking cuts to special schools and disadvantaged children, keeping budgets for social care for older people and supporting community centres, libraries and leisure centres.

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On top of that, the party says the additional money would allow the City of Edinburgh Council to recruit more care workers to bridge a gap of 5,000 unmet care hours a week and invest in long-term repair and maintenance of schools. 

In the council’s recent budget consultation 63 per cent of respondents backed an increase in council tax from 2017/18 to pay for services.

The proposed rise would still leave the council having to make significant savings, but, according to the Greens, it would head off the worst cuts.

The proposals are outlined in a blog published today by the Green’s finance spokesperson, Councillor Gavin Corbett, ahead of the council budget meeting on Thursday 21 January.

Councillor Corbett said: “This year’s budget round is by far the toughest since devolution in 1999, with the city council looking down the barrel of £85m worth of cuts.

“That includes cuts to schools, libraries, swimming pools, social care and community centres.

“That is why almost two-thirds of people responding to the council’s budget consultation backed a council tax rise. 

“I agree with them and I am proposing 97p extra a week to reverse all of the worst cuts and also help tackle to mounting crisis in social care.

“So I believe the city council owes to it to the people of Edinburgh to have a proper grown-up debate about the right balance between new income and spending.”

According to the City of Edinburgh Council the local government finance settlement announced by Deputy First Minister John Swinney in his draft budget statement in December has added an extra £16.7m to the amount it had already calculated it needed to save.