29th January 2007
Don’t Target Hardworking
Families, McNeil Warns Minister
Greenock and Inverclyde’s hardworking
families should be valued, not targeted as a soft touch, MSP Duncan McNeil has
told Liberal Democrat Deputy Finance and Public Service Reform Minister, George
Lyon.
The pair clashed during
Finance and Public Services Questions in the Scottish Parliament, when Mr McNeil
called on the Minister to recognise the contribution which working families make
to the economy and to the funding of public services.
Condemning the Minister’s
refusal to do so, he said that working families in his constituency already paid
their fair share and that it would be, “utterly unfair and counterproductive
to hit those hard-working families with an extra local income tax bill”, as
both the Lib Dems and SNP want to do.
Mr McNeil asked the Minister
whether the Scottish Executive, “believes that working families contribute
proportionately to the funding of local public services in Inverclyde.”
The Minister, however,
replied that he wanted, “a local taxation system that is fair and
proportionate, not just for working families in Inverclyde but for people right
across Scotland.”
Mr McNeil condemned the
Minister for refusing to acknowledge their contribution and for failing to
promise that they would not be targeted so that bills for the richest could be
cut. He said:
“I express some surprise
that the minister does not acknowledge the fact that hard-working families
already pay their fair share for the services that we all enjoy.
Such families are the backbone of our national and local economy and as
such should be valued, not targeted. Would
it not therefore be utterly unfair and counterproductive to hit those
hard-working families with an extra local income tax bill, as the minister's
party and the nationalists propose to do?”
Earlier, Mr McNeil had said:
“If a local income tax is
imposed on us, households where a couple are both out working will be hundreds
of pounds worse off. And families
with adult children at home will be similarly hit – even if the child is only
making apprentice wages. At the
same time, wealthy tax-dodgers based outside Scotland for tax avoidance purposes
wouldn’t pay a penny.
“How
can that be fair? Rather than this
super-tax on hard work and a tax-break for the super-rich, we need to make
Council Tax fairer for everyone.”
ENDS
The relevant extract from the
Official Report reads:
Local Government Funding (Inverclyde)
6. Mr Duncan McNeil (Greenock and
Inverclyde) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that
working families contribute
The Deputy Minister for Finance, Public
Service Reform and Parliamentary Business (George Lyon): We want a local
taxation system that is fair and proportionate, not just for working families in
Inverclyde but for people right across Scotland. That was why we set up the Burt
committee. We are now examining the committee's report and we will make a
decision on the way forward in due course and in the light of all the facts.
Mr McNeil: I express some surprise
that the minister does not acknowledge the fact that hard-working families
already pay their fair share for the services that we all enjoy. Such families
are the backbone of our national and local economy and as such should be valued,
not targeted. Would it not therefore be utterly unfair and counterproductive to
hit those hard-working families with an extra local income tax bill, as the
minister's party and the nationalists propose to do?
George Lyon: A number of views have
been expressed in the Burt committee's report, one of which—recommendation
3—was that the council tax should not be retained in its current form. As I
said in my previous answer, ministers will have to consider all the facts in the
committee's report. We will reflect on that and in due course we will produce a
way forward.
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