Pam Gosal talked about how it affects each and every one of us. Nineteen years of SNP control has had a devastating effect: £528 million pressures are being talked about.

The cabinet secretary is not looking at this like-for-like. We on this side of the chamber reflect on what the Scottish Fiscal Commission and the Fraser of Allander Institute say when they tell us that the Government is not giving enough funding to local government.

As I have said, we have to look at the shortfall in context. As we have already heard, tax increases are a decision for councils, but councils require funding to be given to them. The Government has starved councils for years, so residents will pay more and get less.

We have already heard that the average tax increase last year was about 9.5 per cent. In my region, SNP-run Clackmannanshire Council raised council tax by a staggering 13 per cent. This year, it is talking about having another funding gap of £7 million, while Stirling Council will have a gap of £12 million. Councils the length and breadth of Scotland are being squeezed.

COSLA has also highlighted that the latest Scottish budget delivers a poor funding settlement for local government. The Fraser of Allander Institute has indicated that the average bill will have to rise by 8 per cent this year alone for budgets to stay where they should be. The Government is not putting anything forward; it continues to short-change local government and councils across Scotland.

One way of dealing with that would be to secure a guaranteed share of the Scottish budget. We have been saying that for a number of years. The Fraser of Allander Institute has also indicated that a decrease in funding will continue. We first talked about that being done in relation to local government funding many years ago. We are still talking about it today.

We have heard lots of contributions this afternoon. My colleague Craig Hoy talked about the devastation that councils are facing, with cuts upon cuts, and about how more people will receive more bills that are going up this year. Bills are going in the wrong direction. That is affecting hard-working families, hard-working businessmen and women, and hard-working individuals. The consultation should be ditched. We are happy to stand on the side of the hard-working taxpayer.

We also heard from the cabinet secretary that any reform must be fair. How is it fair to hammer hard-working Scots?

Michael Marra talked about the importance of the council tax freeze that has been forced on councils by this Government. That is undermining and underfunding councils year on year.

Once again, the cabinet secretary has claimed that local government funding has risen in real terms. Given that the Scottish Fiscal Commission, the Fraser of Allander Institute and the Institute for Fiscal Studies talk about a 0.4 per cent increase in real terms, does she accept that councils the length and breadth of Scotland will have to pay more to get less and that individuals and communities will suffer as a result of the budget?

Not at all.

People are talking about having to deal with more. That is a real issue for many councils. Thousands will have to pay more in Dunbartonshire. Pam Gosal spoke about how that is going to happen.

Sue Webber talked about the raid on households in her area. It is not welcome and it is not fair. As I said, the cabinet secretary talked about a fair system. We do not have a fair system. That system is not working. Sue Webber spoke about the new charges, penalties, fees and permits in Edinburgh. Those are all having a massive impact on individuals the length and breadth of her community. People are paying parking charges outside their own front door, and businesses are suffering from stealth taxes and continued piecemeal charging.

This SNP Government insists on endless tinkering with devolved taxes in the hope that it will fix some of the problems that it has created. If councils continue to be squeezed, no amount of tinkering with the tax system will prevent them from raising bills. That is what we have seen today. This Government needs to be honest about the financial pressures facing local government, and about the political will to address that properly. It has to talk about that.

Whether it is income tax, council tax, business rates or stealth taxes, this Government cannot be trusted to reshape Scotland’s tax system in any shape, way or form. As today’s motion sets out, the SNP should step back from this flawed consultation and focus instead on delivering, and on talking about stable funding and genuine partnership in local government. That is what local government wants to see and wants to be involved in, instead of seeing us crying out for that. It has been crying out for that for years.

As we are going to see, people will pay more and get less. That is the SNP’s local government tax policy, and that will continue to be it.

My time is limited, but I may come back to the cabinet secretary.

I am happy to close for the Conservatives. Once again, we find ourselves debating the SNP Government’s badly thought-out tax reforms. This time, the spotlight is on council tax reforms, at a time when householders are under increasing pressure. The prospect of council tax reform and higher bills would be concerning for individuals the length and breadth of Scotland. The consultation cannot be viewed in isolation. It must be considered alongside years of real-terms cuts to local government funding.

I am pleased to speak on the motion to allow the Parliament to reconsider the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.

As the closest level of government to communities, it is right that councils, and elected councillors, are given the powers to act in the best interests of local residents. The Scottish Conservatives will therefore support the motion, so that Parliament can consider which amendments are needed to bring the bill within this Parliament’s legislative competence.

It is regrettable that the Parliament has had to wait so long for progress to be made. It is notable that more than 1,000 days have passed since the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in October 2021. Further, almost exactly a year ago, the Government said that it was working on the bill and that reconsideration would take place as soon as practical. It is only now, with just two months remaining before the end of this session of Parliament, that we have got to this point. However, I am glad that we have done so.

I would like to reflect on how the political debate around local government has developed since the Parliament debated the bill at stage 3, which is nearly five years ago. COSLA has long supported the principles behind the bill, but it has also indicated that local government is facing a “dire financial situation.”

In 2023, the Verity house agreement was published, which aimed to strengthen the Scottish Government’s working relationship with councils. Many of the principles in the agreement can be welcomed, but too much of what is in it has yet to become a reality, and councils are frustrated with the lack of progress so far. It was never intended that the agreement would have any legislative backing, but its principles draw on the European Charter of Local Self-Government. I hope that we can see genuine progress on the relationship between local and central Government, which the Scottish Government has been promising for years.

There is very limited time remaining in the current session of Parliament to reconsider the bill. I hope that the Government can work with Mark Ruskell to progress matters. It is right that the bill progresses to reconsideration stage, but the Government still has much more work to do if it is to regain the trust of local government.

17:23

My time is limited, but I may come back to the cabinet secretary.

Not at all.

People are talking about having to deal with more. That is a real issue for many councils. Thousands will have to pay more in Dunbartonshire. Pam Gosal spoke about how that is going to happen.

Sue Webber talked about the raid on households in her area. It is not welcome and it is not fair. As I said, the cabinet secretary talked about a fair system. We do not have a fair system. That system is not working. Sue Webber spoke about the new charges, penalties, fees and permits in Edinburgh. Those are all having a massive impact on individuals the length and breadth of her community. People are paying parking charges outside their own front door, and businesses are suffering from stealth taxes and continued piecemeal charging.

This SNP Government insists on endless tinkering with devolved taxes in the hope that it will fix some of the problems that it has created. If councils continue to be squeezed, no amount of tinkering with the tax system will prevent them from raising bills. That is what we have seen today. This Government needs to be honest about the financial pressures facing local government, and about the political will to address that properly. It has to talk about that.

Whether it is income tax, council tax, business rates or stealth taxes, this Government cannot be trusted to reshape Scotland’s tax system in any shape, way or form. As today’s motion sets out, the SNP should step back from this flawed consultation and focus instead on delivering, and on talking about stable funding and genuine partnership in local government. That is what local government wants to see and wants to be involved in, instead of seeing us crying out for that. It has been crying out for that for years.

As we are going to see, people will pay more and get less. That is the SNP’s local government tax policy, and that will continue to be it.

I am happy to close for the Conservatives. Once again, we find ourselves debating the SNP Government’s badly thought-out tax reforms. This time, the spotlight is on council tax reforms, at a time when householders are under increasing pressure. The prospect of council tax reform and higher bills would be concerning for individuals the length and breadth of Scotland. The consultation cannot be viewed in isolation. It must be considered alongside years of real-terms cuts to local government funding.