Council tax under fire as SNP announces proposed new bills

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond today pressed ahead with plans to scrap the council tax in Scotland as he pledged to bring forward legislation in the coming Parliamentary year.

He also dared opposition MSPs to vote down the plan to replace it with a local income tax.

"I have no doubt Scotland will judge harshly any MSP who votes to keep the council tax in the face of the overwhelming benefit that would flow to millions of Scots", he told Parliament.

Mr Salmond issued the challenge when he set out the minority SNP administration's legislative programme for the coming year.

There will be 15 bills, including provisions to change licensing laws, include a proposed ban on the sale of alcohol to under-21s in off-licences and a minimum price for alcoholic drinks.

Other parts of the legislative programme include a Climate Change Bill – setting a target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 – a marine bill, a criminal justice bill – to change community punishments and making sure serious offenders are dealt with "firmly and effectively" in prison – and a bill to make it more difficult to close rural schools.

Replacing the council tax with a local income tax will be one of Mr Salmond's big challenges.

Labour and the Tories oppose the plan, and while the Lib Dems favour a local income tax, they are against a uniform 3p rate which will apply across Scotland under the SNP proposals.

Mr Salmond told MSPs: "Abolition of council tax will lift 85,000 individuals from poverty. And it will save the average Scottish family between £350 and £535 a year."

Labour said that while it would engage "constructively" on some parts of the legislation, like the environment, the local income tax plan was damaging and must be "dumped."

Acting Labour leader Cathy Jamieson said: "Alex Salmond says he didn't mind Thatcherite economics. Now he is bringing forward his very own tartan poll tax.

"Whatever Alex Salmond decides to call them, the SNP's tax plans will simultaneously make Scotland the highest-tax part of the UK and damage local services."

Tory leader Annabel Goldie said the proposed local income tax had been "comprehensively rubbished and ridiculed".

She also attacked the alcohol plans, saying: "Does the First Minister seriously intend to persevere with the ludicrous proposal that a responsible adult aged 20 can buy alcohol in the pub but can't take a bottle of wine home to celebrate the birth of his child?"

Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott said: "We want to see the abolition of the discredited council tax.

"Liberal Democrats want a genuinely local income tax and we look forward to working with the government to deliver that."