After the SNP won its first Holyrood election in 2007, foolish council leaders across Scotland rushed to sign up to what then finance secretary John Swinney described as a ‘historic concordat’. In return for Swinney pulling back from his threat to centralise education, Scotland’s 32 local authorities agreed to uphold the nationalists’ promise to freeze council tax rates. Lots of councillors swanked about, bragging about this brilliant deal. Look at us, they said, we’ve got a ‘historic concordat’.
It appears that Yousaf has announced a flagship policy that he is simply unable to cost.
And then reality slapped them across their faces. Swinney had stitched them up good and proper. The ‘historic concordat’ was worth less than the paper it was written on. The increased autonomy meant councillors were now responsible for the downsides of the council tax freeze.
For nine years — until 2016 — council tax rates remained unchanged across Scotland.
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