The nine-year council tax freeze had a devastating impact and yet it will be reactivated. During his keynote speech to SNP conference in Aberdeen on Tuesday afternoon, First Minister Humza Yousaf announced the local tax will remain at the current level when councils set their budgets for the year 2024-25 (it is pure coincidence, I’m sure, that there’s a Holyrood election in 2026).

Delegates at SNP conference cheered Yousaf’s announcement, which represented quite the change of direction for the Scottish government — which has previously proposed increasing council tax by as much as 22.5 per cent for homes in the highest bands.

Yousaf framed his announcement as part of his government’s effort to ameliorate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on Scots. But he has no idea what price for this might be. The UK government has not yet settled on a figure for the block grant to be transferred from Westminster to Holyrood next year. And, until that figure is known, the Scottish government doesn’t know how much money it will be able to make available to councils and, therefore, how much more it will have to hand over in order to fund the council tax freeze

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters