Item 15 - Council response to The Future of Council Tax in Scotland Consultation
West Dunbartonshire Council · 25 March 2026
Back to West Dunbartonshire Council — 25 March 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Some pages contain no extractable text. They may be blank, graphics or scanned pages. OCR has not been applied.
Page 1
WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by Chief Officer - Resources Council: 25 March 2026 ___________________________________________________________________ Subject: Council response to The Future of Council Tax in Scotland Consultation 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide members with the Council’s response to the Scottish Governments consultation on the Future of Council Tax in Scotland. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended members note the contents of the report and the consultation response at appendix 1. 3. Background 3.1 Council Tax has not been fundamentally changed or updated since its introduction over 30 years ago. As property values and local demographics have changed, there is a view that Council Tax needs to be updated to reflect the changes. 3.2 The Scottish Government consultation set out a range of options for how Council Tax system in Scotland could be updated and improved. 3.3 Council Tax is a local tax on domestic properties and is paid by most households, with over 2.5 million dwellings in Scotland and over 46,000 domestic properties in West Dunbartonshire. 4. Main Issues 4.1 The consultation opened on 17th October 2026 with responses to be submitted by 30th January 2026. Unfortunately due to the timetable for papers for Council meeting in December and several conflicting priorities, it was not possible to present a draft submission at that Council meeting. 4.2 The Council’s protocol for external consultations states if the consultation is technical or operational, and not politically controversial, then a response on behalf of the Council can be prepared by officers acting under delegated powers. Exceptions are where this would represent a departure from Council policy or procedure or would be contrary to a standing instruction of Council or committee or would represent a significant development of policy of procedure or relates to a matter which is political in the sense of differing political parties ITEM 15
Page 2
having a clearly different position on the issue. Officers may choose to consult the Leader or their Service Spokesperson or Convener regarding the issue of whether such a consultation is political or the terms of its response. However the decision on what goes into the response is for the officer. 4.3 The protocols also state where there is insufficient time to get the consultation paper or response to Council or committee then officers could respond on behalf of the Council using the urgency power contained in Standing Order 35b(iv) subject to reporting this to the next Council or committee. It would however be advisable to get as much democratic input to help finalise a response. This could be achieved through a number of routes including (a) include the consultation document in the Members’ bulletin and invite comments from Members with a final consultation with the Leader and Leader of the Opposition on the response; (b) recommend to Council or committee that it makes provision for a working group to deal with such consultation papers, comprising the relevant Service Spokesperson, Shadow Spokesperson and Strategic Director; (c) submit an officer’s response, with the Groups doing their own thing. The Administration could of course endorse the officer’s response. 4.4 Following a review of the protocols, the draft submission was shared with the Leader of the Council and the Leader of the Opposition. It was agreed that this could be submitted as an officers response and that members could submit their own individual or party response to the consultation. 4.5 A further report will be brought to Council when the Scottish Government publish the outcome of the consultation and the next steps of the process. 5. People Implications 5.1 There are no people implications. 6. Financial & Procurement Implications 6.1 There are no financial or procurement implications at this stage of the consultation. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 None 8. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 8.1 An equalities screening carried out did not identify any equality considerations.
Page 3
9. Consultation 9.1 The views Legal Services have been requested on this report and have advised there are no issues. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 Sound financial practice and budgetary control are imperative to assist with the governance of the Council and supports officers of the Council in achieving the five strategic priorities of the Council’s Strategic Plan. This report forms part of the financial governance of the Council. …………………………………………… Laurence Slavin Chief Officer - Resources Date: 23 February 2026 Person to Contact: Ryan Chalmers, Section Head, Church Street, Dumbarton. Email: ryan.chalmers@west- dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: Appendix 1 - The Future of Council Tax Scotland submission Background Papers: None Wards Affected: All Council wards.
Page 4
No embedded text on this page.