Council Tax to go in Scotland

1.28.05pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 5th Sep 2008

Axe Council Tax Graphic

Nick Clegg has apparently given his blessing to a deal with the SNP that could mean local income tax being introduced in Scotland according to the Scotsman newspaper.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, announced earlier this week that he was going to push ahead with plans to introduce a local income tax, set centrally at 3p in the pound, and a bill would be published in the next parliamentary session.

Mr Clegg said the Nationalists' "formal" policy, set by the party at previous conferences, was for local discretion and he said he hoped they would move back to that. He said "Where, of course, we presently differ from the SNP is that, while the SNP's formal policy is still that it should be a genuine local tax, namely one that can be varied by communities locally, their present proposal is, of course, much more rigid than that - it is actually a set rate. That is precisely the issue on which we want to persuade the SNP to go back to their better instincts, so that we are once again in line with each other."