A proposal by the Conservative Group on Fife Council to use a £3.7m budget surplus to help council taxpayers cope with the rise in the cost of living has been quashed by officials, who have buckled under the pressure of the SNP Government’s relentless funding squeeze on councils.
Group Leader, Cllr Dave Dempsey said “Fife Council has this £3.7m available next year provided it increases Council Tax by 3%. The SNP/Labour coalition has published its ideas for spending that money. Given the hike in energy prices and other costs, we’d prefer to leave the cash in the pockets of council taxpayers, so that they can use it where it’s most needed.
“The simplest way of doing that would be to cut the rise from 3% to about 0.8% but that was vetoed by officials. The law entitles them to do that, though we’ve yet to receive an explanation that makes sense. Whether the Council collects the money and spends it or simply doesn’t collect it in the first place makes no long-term difference. It’s one-off cash, so future years are unaffected.
“We then tried to find an alternative but a payback of council tax would be illegal and any scheme to package a refund as a “welfare payment” or similar would add a six-figure admin cost. Cutting the headline council tax rise costs nothing in admin as the same bills go out, just with a lower number.
“We’ve tried our best to give hard-pressed taxpayers the most direct help we can but we’ve been thwarted. We’re mystified as to why. We’re mystified and taxpayers will be poorer. Not a good day for Fife.
ENDS
Note to Editors : The report for Thursday’s Budget meeting contains, at para 1.6 on page 48
The determination of the budget requirement is governed by statute, in particular, S93 (3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. This outlines that the Council must calculate the level of expenditure it will incur in the year, the level of income it will receive through nondomestic rates, general revenue funding and additional grants and whether or not there will be a contribution from reserves or need to restore reserves. The difference between such expenditure and income being the balance of the budget to be met from council tax which will be divided by the council tax base to determine the Band D council tax. All other council tax bands being set with reference to Band D as required by legislation. The Council has recently been given full flexibility by the Scottish Government to increase council tax for 2022-23 and this is relevant to decision making in setting a balanced budget.
There is nothing there that precludes a 0.8% increase for Fife this year