THE Scottish TUC accused the SNP government of hypocrisy today as Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes called on local authorities to curb council tax hikes.

Ms Forbes made the remarks after a Local Government Information Unit survey showed 20 per cent of Scotland’s 32 councils plan to increase local taxes by 10 per cent or more, while the remainder plan hikes of 5 to 12 per cent to manage £265 million of “cost pressures.”

Accounts Commission chairwoman Jo Armstrong warned: “Scotland’s councils face a challenging future, with significant financial risks and uncertainties.

“This has been compounded by pressures outwith their control, including ever-increasing demand on services and inflation.”

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Ms Forbes said: “The settlement is the highest in recent times and should mean that councils do not have to increase council tax at the rate they might have been anticipating.

“It means that households are protected from higher increases because of that record settlement.

“This is a Budget that proves that we are serious about investing in the public services that serve the people of Scotland.”

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer told the Star: “It is pure hypocrisy for the Scottish government to tell local government not to raise council taxes when they have left them at the receiving end of austerity-style real-terms cuts for decades. 

“The Scottish government knows that the real answer to our fiscal woes is to scrap the regressive council tax altogether and use their existing powers through local taxation to effectively tax the wealth that exists across our economy, as set out in the STUC’s report.

“This approach is not the easy option, but failing to replace the outdated council tax is simply papering over the fiscal cracks.”