West Lothian council tax to rise by 8.95 per cent and garden waste charge increases

Council tax will increase by 8.95 per cent in West Lothian, close to the national average, but hefty enough to be felt in many homes after a decade of Holyrood imposed tax freezes. For the Band D taxpayer it means an increase of almost £125 extra a year.

Meanwhile, Conservative councillors won an agreement that the planned £50 bulky uplift charge would not be imposed . The charge for five item uplift will remain at £38.59. The garden waste permit will rise to £52.

West Lothian Council has agreed a council tax rise of 8.95 per cent

Charges for council services will rise an average of up to 5 per cent across the board. These include registration fees, burial and cemetery costs as well as certain licensing fees.

The council still faces a shortfall counted in millions of pounds and has had to find an extra £2.1 million of cutbacks for this year alone.

Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick told the special meeting of the full council: “I realise that some council tax payers will be concerned about our proposed increase of 8.95 per cent. No-one running an administration in Scotland takes any great joy in having to push for this level.

“I understand that the average increase will be around 8.5 per ecnt throughout Scotland. Why?

“The answer is quite simple we have had ten years of Council Tax freezes imposed by the Scottish Government and within that period we have had to deal with inflation and wage raise which has caused substantial budget difficulties extending to £172m

“Also it is a fact that when the SNP took control of the government in 2007/8 at that time councils received 28.62 per cent of the block grant that came from Westminster. Last year, the total managed expenditure to councils was 21.38 per cent. That is a cut since the SNP came into power of one quarter, and everything is blamed on Westminster.”

Both The SNP and Conservative councillors criticised the extra costs loaded onto West Lothian by the rise in National Insurance contributions and rising thresholds.

Answering a question from the Conservative group leader Damian Doran-Timson the acting head of Finance Kenneth Ribbons said the costs facing the council were an extra £6.6m with an extra £2.2m in contractor costs in social care as a result of the increases.

SNP group leader Councillor Janet Campbell said the increased costs from NI contribution amounted to £700m of which Holyrood had only been passed on £300m from Westminster.

The opposition SNP group proposed an alternative budget calling for investment in registration services and the development of streaming services such as marriage which the party argued could generate more funds through an upgrade of service suite .

The party had proposed a swift introduction of a wider Decriminalised Parking Enforcement with added charges and protection of community centres. However both of these issues were ruled out by Standing Orders as already being in the council decision making process.

Councillor Campbell told the meeting: “The rise in council tax today is entirely caused by Labour party decisions, financial mismanagement and incompetence by Labour politicians at every level. In addition monies paid back in PFI projects by a Labour administration £18.6m last year alone.

“This SNP budget is one in which we seek to strengthen our social contract with the people of West Lothian. It is based on fairness but has , by necessity, has had to take account of the decisions by the Labour party. It protects public services rather than spending to save rather than austerity.”

The group called for the protection of threatened nurseries and the introduction of one off payments to protect services.

Councillor Doran-Timson criticised the SNP budget for wanting to charge parking fees for the country parks. He slated the Holyrood administration for its expenditure of £6.6bn on quangos and the £30m spend on the abandoned National Care Service.

He added: “But our budget challenges today are not just caused by years and years of cuts to local governments by the SNP, without doubt one of the biggest challenges we face is down to the Labour government to increase three National Insurance and reduce the threshold.

“Just like across Scotland the residents of West Lothian face the worst possible scenario,a nightmare: an economically incompetent Labour Government and an SNP in Holyrood who have literally no idea, not a plan and not a clue.”

The majority of West Lothian’s savings measures were agreed two years ago and are implemented over a five-year period. However, more measures have had to be agreed in order to allow the Council to balance its budget.

A wide range of budget savings have already been agreed at last year’s budget setting meeting and will be implemented further from April 2025.

Examples include:-

• Internal savings through reviewing admin support and streamlining processes to reduce costs
• Internal management restructures
• Reduction in staff numbers in some areas, no-filling of vacancies and management restructures
• Review of existing contracts for commissioned services to achieve cost savings
• Intensive fostering campaign and development of a WL adoption services
• Significant savings across Education which includes revised scheme of devolved school management

Over £2.1 million of additional savings are proposed to help meet the increased funding gap have been approved for next year (2025/2026)

These include:-

• Internal efficiency savings in staffing, property, supplies and services and transport budgets.
• Reduction in council tax empty property discounts in line with parameters set out in regulations
• Review of empty property relief and exemptions for Non-Domestic Rates
• Increased income from rent of council properties.