If Scotland introduces LIT and doesn’t get money back, then Scottish tax payers will be contributing to the UK cost of CTB but not able to recieve it.

Not only is that not particularly fair, but to advocate it would be electoral suicide for Labour.

Peter.

Currently 400 million is given to Scottish local authorities so that they don’t have to charge poor people council tax. If LIT is introduced it should go to the Scottish Govt for exactly the same reason.

Under the SNP proposal that’s just what I would do.

The way to restore real local democracy in UK is to give more & effective powers to locally elected councils -and make them responsible for raising more of their budgets themselves-not less as in this proposal.

At present-you are right-Party Groups spend locally according to centrally dictated priorities & rules.A large part of their income is doled out by Whitehall-who decide who gets what.
Local Councillors are little more than ciphers & might as well have all their revenues raised by the Central Government via a Central Income Tax Surcharge -as proposed by SNP.

“No taxation without representation” has always seemed to me to be a sound principle & a test of real democracy.

The SNP need to justify why England should transfer £400 million to the Scottish Executive. Until that happens you won’t get much sympathy darne sarf’

As I understand it, the £400 million is a Council-Tax rebate for the poor. Under LIT surely the poor will not pay anything. Ergo, no rebate.

Cheers!