Council Tax Reduction in Scotland: 2021-2022
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 2021 to March 2022. It makes references to the previously published March 2021 for comparative purposes.
5. CTR Impact on Council Tax Income
In Scotland in 2021-22, the total gross Council Tax charged, before CTR, was £3.082 billion and the provisional income forgone due to CTR was £358.8 million. The large decrease in provisional income forgone due to CTR in 2021-22 compared to the final audited figure of £374.2 million in 2020-21 is likely driven by economic and employment conditions recovering after the initial impact of Covid-19 in 2020. This means that in total CTR accounted for 11.6 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, a fifth of recipient 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 2021-22 by local authority. The 2013-14 to 2020-21 figures have been the subject of audit. The latest 2021-22 figures are provisional. These figures represent a marginal decrease of 0.3 percent in the total value of reductions in Scotland between 2013-14 and 2021-22, compared to an increase of 4 per cent between 2013-14 and 2020-21 recorded last year. This a result of the decrease in CTR scheme costs likely driven by economic and employment conditions recovering after the initial impacts of Covid-19 in 2020.
Half of local authorities have seen a decrease in the total value of reductions due to CTR between 2013-14 and 2021-22. The largest percentage decreases were seen in Na h-Eileanan Siar (-17 per cent), West Dunbartonshire (-12 per cent) and Inverclyde (-6 per cent). Details of the changes in income forgone are available in the supplementary tables published with this report.
| 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 359.7 | 343.8 | 329.9 | 319.6 | 327.3 | 330.9 | 335.0 | 374.2 | 358.8 |
| Aberdeen City | 9.8 | 9.2 | 9.1 | 9.3 | 9.6 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 11.8 | 11.4 |
| Aberdeenshire | 7.6 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.6 | 7.7 | 7.9 | 9.4 | 8.9 |
| Angus | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 5.8 | 5.5 |
| Argyll and Bute | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 5.6 |
| City of Edinburgh | 27.7 | 26.5 | 24.9 | 23.8 | 24.7 | 24.7 | 24.6 | 28.1 | 26.6 |
| Clackmannanshire | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.7 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 8.9 | 8.6 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 9.8 | 9.3 |
| Dundee City | 12.8 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.7 | 11.9 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 13.3 | 13.0 |
| East Ayrshire | 10.0 | 9.4 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 10.1 | 9.7 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.6 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| East Lothian | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.7 | 5.5 |
| East Renfrewshire | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Falkirk | 8.7 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.8 | 8.6 |
| Fife | 21.7 | 20.8 | 20.0 | 19.5 | 20.2 | 20.7 | 20.5 | 22.6 | 22.2 |
| Glasgow City | 71.8 | 68.6 | 66.2 | 64.0 | 65.9 | 67.4 | 68.0 | 75.8 | 73.1 |
| Highland | 12.7 | 12.0 | 11.7 | 11.4 | 12.0 | 11.9 | 12.0 | 13.9 | 13.1 |
| Inverclyde | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.9 | 6.7 |
| Midlothian | 5.3 | 5.1 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 5.1 |
| Moray | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 4.0 |
| Na h-Eileanan Siar | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| North Ayrshire | 11.9 | 11.5 | 11.3 | 10.9 | 11.3 | 11.3 | 11.6 | 12.9 | 12.3 |
| North Lanarkshire | 25.5 | 24.4 | 23.1 | 22.0 | 22.2 | 22.4 | 22.9 | 25.4 | 24.1 |
| Orkney Islands | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Perth and Kinross | 6.9 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 6.8 |
| Renfrewshire | 13.8 | 13.2 | 12.6 | 12.1 | 12.2 | 12.4 | 12.7 | 14.4 | 13.4 |
| Scottish Borders | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.9 | 5.5 |
| Shetland Islands | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| South Ayrshire | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.7 | 8.4 |
| South Lanarkshire | 21.8 | 21.1 | 20.1 | 19.3 | 19.3 | 19.5 | 19.8 | 21.9 | 21.1 |
| Stirling | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 9.8 | 9.4 | 8.9 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 8.9 | 8.7 |
| West Lothian | 10.4 | 9.8 | 9.4 | 9.3 | 9.2 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 11.0 | 10.4 |
Please note, the latest figures for 2021-22 are provisional, derived from information supplied by local authorities to the Scottish Government on the Council Tax Collection Return, Quarter 4 2021-22 (CTRR). The final audited figures (2013-14 to 2020-21) are published in the Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics webpage.
Contact
Email: eddie.chan@gov.scot
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