Bill seeks to axe council tax

Mr Sheridan also campaigned against the poll tax in the late 80s

A plan to scrap the council tax has been lodged at Holyrood by Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan.

The SSP leader has put forward a member's bill in the Scottish Parliament proposing to replace the council tax with an income-based alternative.

Earlier this week, Liberal Democrats voted to axe the council tax at their UK conference in Brighton, but the party in Scotland did not make abolition a condition of its coalition deal with Labour in May.

The Scottish Executive has only committed itself to a review of how councils are funded.

'Pensioner's purse'

During First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Mr Sheridan called on Jack McConnell to scrap the council tax.

He highlighted the UK Lib Dem's campaign to replace it with a local income tax of up to 3%.

The current system was "hammering" the elderly who face rises much larger than increases in their pension, Mr Sheridan said.

He said that five out of Holyrood's seven political parties now wanted to abolish the council tax.

Mr Sheridan told the first minister: "It's about time that you supported a system based on personal income, that instead of continuing to plunder the pensioner's purse, we started to fleece the fat-cat wallet."

Mr McConnell insisted there was a role for the sort of property-based taxation which the council tax represents.

Jack McConnell: There is a role for property-based taxation

He said "socialists throughout the last century" had recognised its link to ability to pay.

The first minister acknowledged the differences between the two parties in the Scottish Executive coalition at the recent elections.

Mr McConnell said: "I don't believe my party's policy in May of improving and extending council tax bands is in any way protecting the wealthy, or not looking after pensioners.

"It isn't any secret that in this year's election there were two different views in the Labour manifesto and Liberal Democrat manifesto, and I think we've taken the right decision to refer them, and those views of others in this chamber, to an independent review of local government finance.

"I hope and expect the independent review will put SSP's plans for a Scottish service tax - which would penalise a significant number of people who are not wealthy at all and which would centralise local taxation rather than giving local authorities more power and responsibility - under some scrutiny, and I'm sure they will find them wanting."