(Please see UPDATES at end)
This time it is Stirling, which has announced an increase of 1.8 per cent in its Council Tax rates for the coming tax year. Naturally this, together with the claimed "difficult" policy-related savings amounting to £2m, will have nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming Scottish Parliament and Council elections if you believe the announcements. Ahem.
I have written earlier about similar recent below-inflation increases in Council Tax in respect of Renfrewshire and the Borders.
Does anyone think that next year's increases will be similarly low, when there is no election due?
UPDATE: (Thursday 8FEB07 17.20 CET) Since I wrote this I have discovered another article (again from the BBC) which have fuller details of Council Tax increases across Scotoland. It seems that the increases this year are the lowest since 1993. My own Council, Highland Council, has announced an increase of 2.5 per cent; naturally I have no objection to a 'low' increase, just the cynicism of this maneouvre by Councils in the year when elections are being held, specially when the general rate of inflation in the economy has been edging up, not down, for several quarters.
2nd UPDATE: (Thursday 8FEB07 23.45 CET) It seems that the average increase in Council Tax rates across Scotland is 1.9 per cent, considerably lower than inflation; my suspicion is that this is a deliberate move to fool the voters (as happens every 4 years) before the upcoming Local Council and Scottish Parliament elections.
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