A council tax revaluation for homes in Scotland is urgently needed for child poverty targets to be met, an advisory commission has said.

The Poverty and Inequality Commission says it is one of a series of measures needed by the Scottish Government to improve the tax system.

But it has warned that SNP ministers have lacked “political will” to bring forward long-promised revaluation plans for council tax.

The commission was set up in 2017 by the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act to advise the Scottish Government on measures to improve the lives of the worst off in the country and close the gap between the richest and poorest.

In a new report, it recommended bringing wealth as well as income into the scope of taxation, as part of a long-term solution to putting public finances on a sustainable footing.

SNP ministers have consulted on whether to raise the relative tax bill on Band E to H homes by between 7.5% and 22.5% next year to raise £175m, a move which also happened in 2017.

But thinktank Reform Scotland has branded the proposals mere “tinkering” and “effectively pointless”.

Currently, council tax is based on property values from 1991 and critics say it has a regressive effect, leading to poorer people paying more.

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