South Lanarkshire council tax increases by 6.5 per cent - Daily Record

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : " Announcing the budget plans, council leader Joe Fagan described the budget as "for the greater good of South Lanarkshire" and said the tax rise for householders - which would take the authority's Band D figure to £1468.49 per year - means the authority is once again "on course to have the lowest council tax in Scotland".
53% : " The council had £1.5m available for investment this year prior to agreeing the 6.5 per cent council tax rise - which Councillor Fagan says will also "more than halve" next year's projected budget gap to £10m - and agreed an increase of the same percentage for housing rents.
52% : South Lanarkshire Council cross-party budget group leaders Maureen Chalmers of the SNP, Lib Dem Robert Brown, Joe Fagan of Labour, Greens' Kirsten Robb and independent David Watson(Image: Contributed/Hamilton Advertiser) Council tax will rise by 6.5 per cent as South Lanarkshire Council agreed a "consensus budget" for 2026-2027 - including millions of pounds of investment in the local environment, business projects, culture and community projects and funding for schools.
51% : The five political groups jointly agreeing the "historic" budget said: "We have been able to deliver this while keeping council tax rates in South Lanarkshire the lowest in Scotland.
45% : " Conservative leader Alex Allison told how his group would "not be supporting the budget in this form, although we agree with much of what's in it" and had "no objections at all to the spending choices" over concerns about the chosen rate of council tax increase, suggesting that a higher figure would be required.
44% : Members did not impose any of the available £8.2m in potential cuts and savings, with the council leader noting that the balanced budget contains "£4.5m in savings with no cuts to frontline services, all while remaining on course to have the lowest council tax in Scotland".
43% : He continued: "It's to the credit of this council we can face those [financial] challenges while avoiding double-digit council tax rises and the deepest of cuts.
43% : South Lanarkshire will continue to levy the lowest council tax in Scotland and this budget will deliver visible improvements from a strong base.
41% : A deficit in excess of a 20 per cent rise in council tax is not acceptable and I'm concerned we're going to need to go to that; these programmes that are very welcome could have been funded without adding to that black hole in future years.

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