Restoring council budgets will take time – Cosla

With no attempt being made to limit rises next year, it will be up to each council to decide what to do when local budgets are agreed.

Most councils are either coalitions or minority administrations which rely on other parties or independent councillors for support.

When councillors are reaching decisions about rises, many are likely to contemplate how local voters would react to any large rises.

Although councils will have the right to put up the council tax by any amount in 2025, their decisions are likely to be influenced by how local voters may react to a significant increase.

In 2023, with inflation running high, most councils opted for rises of around 5% even though they could have put the tax up by more.

The previous year, only two put up the tax by more than 3%.