Recommendation 71

We recognise the work that has already been undertaken on council tax reform and acknowledge there are different views on how this should be progressed. There are several outstanding issues and questions arising from our inquiry on council tax reform which the Committee believes could be pursued as part of future consideration of this issue:
The Scottish Government committed to a debate in the Scottish Parliament in early 2026 informed by the research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, which has not taken place. A future committee may wish to consider this research if undertaking any work on council tax reform.
The Committee had recommended the Scottish Government should provide a specification to the Scottish Assessors Association to allow it to estimate the cost of overall revaluation. A cost has been estimated in the Budget for 2026-27 for the creation of two additional bands and we were told by the Scottish Government that "The assessors are confident in their assessment of the costs of undertaking the exercise over the two-year period and in the appeals process that they have provided to us...". v Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, Official Report , 27 January 2026 , Col 42 It is not clear to the Committee whether this has been part of a comprehensive estimate of the costs of recalibrating council tax bands. We have not been provided with the specification for overall revaluation as requested and a future committee may wish to pursue the request for clarity on what assessments have been made of the cost of revaluation.
The public consultation closed on 30 January. We were told a summary of responses would be available in late March or early April. v Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, Official Report , 27 January 2026 , Col 43 In addition, a wider engagement programme took place in 2025 and the results of this are anticipated to be included in the consultation analysis. The timing of this means the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee has not had the opportunity to consider the results of this exercise.