A LEADING trade unionist has dismissed leaked proposals for council tax rises in Scotland as “tinkering around the edges” amid a growing cash crisis.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham was commenting today after the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) paper discussed massive increases in council tax.

The paper proposed to hold a consultation on raising the top bands of council tax by as much as 22.5 per cent, but it is understood that the organisation is yet to agree to the plans.

Changes to the top bands were permitted by the Scottish government in 2017, but it yielded relatively little in places of high deprivation, such as Glasgow, where less than 7 per cent of properties are in bands F-H.

While supporting the increases, Mr Moxham said: “It really is a sticking-plaster measure and we need more radical action.

“We do need the council tax scrapped — and apparently we have most political parties that agree with that — but no action has been taken now for years and that action needs to start.

“What the Scottish government, what Cosla are doing at the moment is tinkering around the edges to try and make the system that we’ve got more progressive, because it does need to be more progressive.”

Of the plans, a Cosla spokesperson told the Star: “This is not something that councils take lightly — we understand the pressures on family budgets amidst the cost-of-living crisis.

“However, the essential services councils provide require investment and now that leaders, on Friday, have agreed to work with Scottish government on the consultation, we will work on the final details.”