SNP Council Group Leader, Jim MacLeod comments on the council tax freeze that has brought real benefit to the people of Inverclyde.

Cllr MacLeod said: "It is good to see that through the actions of Finance Minister John Swinney and the SNP administration in Edinburgh that the Council Tax in Inverclyde has been frozen at 0% for the third year running. This Council tax freeze is welcome news for thousands of pensioners and families throughout Inverclyde and Scotland.

"Compare this to the previous 10 years from 1997 and 2007 where, under successive Labour governments in London and Labour/Lib Dem Executives in Edinburgh, the Council Tax rose by 58% in Inverclyde.

"Under Labour, pensioners throughout Scotland were spending in excess of 10% of their income on the Council Tax, and when this is added to the ever-increasing gas and electricity bills, they were paying as much as 30% on these combined bills - and all of this in an energy-rich Scotland."

Councillor Innes Nelson added: "This Council Tax freeze has been good news for Inverclyde Families and Pensioners. However, the SNP see the current system of council tax as regressive, a tax which is unfair and unjust and which tends to hurt the most vulnerable in our society, particularly our older citizens and people on low incomes. It simply does not reflect a persons ability to pay.

"The SNP would like us to go much further by introducing a fair and progressive Local Income Tax. This local tax would be fairer and would be based on a person’s income. Under these SNP plans as many as 500,000 pensioners would pay NO Council Tax and those on low incomes would pay much less.

"Local Income Tax is a tried and tested system in many other countries, some whose social policy has been shown to be much better than ours. However, when council tax reforms were proposed by the Government  the Labour, Tory & Lib Dem parliamentarians threatened to block its reform. The SNP were angry at this as their actions have penalised Scottish families. We simply cannot introduce a Local Income Tax without the votes of one of the other parties. That is why it is absolutely crucial that at next years Scottish election, the people of Inverclyde elect an SNP MSP who will put their interests first."