Council Tax Reduction in Scotland, 2020-21
Council Tax Reduction (CTR) awarded by age, household structure, income sources and employment status, deprivation index, and Council Tax band in the financial year from April 2020 to March 2021. It also makes references to the previously published March 2020 statistics for comparative purposes.
5. CTR Impact on Council Tax Income
In Scotland in 2020-21, the total gross Council Tax charged, before CTR, was £3.050 billion and the provisional income forgone due to CTR was £374.9 million. The large increase in provisional income forgone due to CTR in 2020-21 compared to the final audited figure of £335.0 million in 2019-20 is a result of the economic impact of Covid-19. This means that in total CTR accounted for 12.3 per cent of total gross Council Tax. This is notably lower than the one-fifth of chargeable dwellings in receipt of CTR quoted in Section 4 due to two main factors. Firstly, just over a fifth of households receive partial CTR as mentioned in Section 2.5. Secondly, as described in Section 4, the distribution of CTR recipients is heavily skewed towards the lower Council Tax bands with lower annual liability, and so lower CTR awards.
Information on the total value of all reductions under the CTR scheme is collected via two Scottish Government data collections:
- Council Tax Receipts Return (CTRR)
Issued before local authorities accounts are audited and so collects provisional, unaudited values for the total reductions under CTR. - Local Financial Returns (LFR)
Issued after local authorities accounts are audited and so collects final, audited values for the total reductions under CTR.
Table 4 shows the total value of reductions for each year between 2013-14 and 2020-21 by local authority. The 2013-14 to 2019-20 figures have been the subject of audit. The 2020-21 figures are provisional. These figures represent an increase of 4 percent in the total value of reductions in Scotland between 2013-14 and 2020-21, compared to a decrease of 6 per cent between 2013-14 and 2019-20 recorded last year as a result of the increase in CTR scheme costs due to the economic impacts of Covid-19.
Most local authorities have therefore seen an increase in the total value of reductions due to CTR between 2013-14 and 2020-21. The largest percentage increases were seen in Aberdeenshire (24 per cent), Aberdeen City (20 per cent) and Orkney Islands
(17 per cent). Details of the changes in income forgone are available in the supplementary tables published with this report.
| 2013-14 a | 2014-15 a | 2015-16 a | 2016-17 a | 2017-18 a | 2018-19 a | 2019-20 a | 2020-21 b | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 359.7 | 343.8 | 329.9 | 319.6 | 327.3 | 330.9 | 335.0 | 374.9 |
| Aberdeen City | 9.8 | 9.2 | 9.1 | 9.3 | 9.6 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 11.8 |
| Aberdeenshire | 7.6 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.6 | 7.7 | 7.9 | 9.4 |
| Angus | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.8 |
| Argyll and Bute | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 6.0 |
| City of Edinburgh | 27.7 | 26.5 | 24.9 | 23.8 | 24.7 | 24.7 | 24.6 | 28.4 |
| Clackmannanshire | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 8.9 | 8.6 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 9.8 |
| Dundee City | 12.8 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.7 | 11.9 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 13.3 |
| East Ayrshire | 10.0 | 9.4 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 10.1 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.6 | 5.1 |
| East Lothian | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.7 |
| East Renfrewshire | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 |
| Falkirk | 8.7 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.8 |
| Fife | 21.7 | 20.8 | 20.0 | 19.5 | 20.2 | 20.7 | 20.5 | 22.6 |
| Glasgow City | 71.8 | 68.6 | 66.2 | 64.0 | 65.9 | 67.4 | 68.0 | 76.0 |
| Highland | 12.7 | 12.0 | 11.7 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 11.9 | 12.0 | 13.9 |
| Inverclyde | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.9 |
| Midlothian | 5.3 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.3 |
| Moray | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.2 |
| Na h-Eileanan Siar | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| North Ayrshire | 11.9 | 11.5 | 11.3 | 10.9 | 11.3 | 11.3 | 11.6 | 12.9 |
| North Lanarkshire | 25.5 | 24.4 | 23.1 | 22.0 | 22.2 | 22.4 | 22.9 | 25.4 |
| Orkney Islands | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Perth and Kinross | 6.9 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.8 |
| Renfrewshire | 13.8 | 13.2 | 12.6 | 12.1 | 12.2 | 12.4 | 12.7 | 14.4 |
| Scottish Borders | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 6.0 |
| Shetland Islands | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| South Ayrshire | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.7 |
| South Lanarkshire | 21.8 | 21.1 | 20.1 | 19.3 | 19.3 | 19.5 | 19.8 | 21.9 |
| Stirling | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.6 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 9.8 | 9.4 | 8.9 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 8.9 |
| West Lothian | 10.4 | 9.8 | 9.4 | 9.3 | 9.2 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 11.1 |
a Final audited figures, published in Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics and available at: https://www.gov.scot/collections/local-government-finance-statistics/
b These are provisional figures which are derived from information supplied by local authorities to Scottish Government on the statistical return Council Tax Collection Return, Quarter 4 2020-21 (CTRR).
Contact
Email: eddie.chan@gov.scot
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