Future of council tax in Scotland: Consultation analysis Final Report

1. Introduction

This report presents the independent analysis of responses to the Scottish Government consultation on the future of council tax in Scotland.

Background to the consultation

The Joint Working Group on Council Tax Reform, co-chaired by the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), led a programme of engagement to build consensus on council tax reform.

This programme included various activities designed to seek the views of a wide range of people from across Scotland. It consisted of three elements:

• A formal public consultation process.
• Public engagement events
• Roundtable discussions with key stakeholders and experts.

To support the programme, independent analysis was commissioned by the Scottish Government and carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The revaluation and reform of council tax in Scotland: design considerations and potential impacts report (October 2025) provided the main evidence base for the estimates of potential impacts of the illustrative reforms presented throughout the consultation paper.

Consultation format and structure

The public consultation ran for a period of 14 weeks from 27 October 2025 to 30 January 2026 and was hosted on the Scottish Government Citizen Space website. Respondents could submit a consultation response online or directly to the Scottish Government using another format (for example, direct email or hard copy). A total of 1,311 responses were received over this period.

The consultation set out a range of options for how the council tax system in Scotland could be updated and improved.

The consultation paper asked 16 questions, consisting of 14 closed and two open questions.

EKOS was commissioned to provide an independent analysis of the responses to the public consultation. This report presents the findings of this analysis and is based on the approach outlined in Chapter 2.

Structure of the remainder of the report

The remainder of this report is structured as follows.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the consultation analysis methodology, the number of responses received, data management and cleaning, respondent profile, the approach taken to the quantitative and qualitative analysis, and limitations of the analysis.

Chapter 3 presents the quantitative analysis of the 14 closed questions and is structured around the three themes in the consultation paper.

Part 1: Council Tax and Property Changes Over Time: presenting the findings from questions 1 to 3 in the consultation paper.

Part 2: Options for Council Tax Reform: covering the findings from consultation questions 4 to 7.

Part 3: Transition and Mitigation: presenting the findings from consultation questions 8 to 14.

These sections also include qualitative analysis of additional responses provided in ’other, please specify’ boxes for five of the 14 closed questions.

Chapter 4 presents a thematic analysis of responses to the two open questions, and includes, where relevant, other qualitative feedback provided in ’other, please specify’ boxes in some of the closed questions.

• Question 15: ‘Do you have any information you wish to share that has not already been discussed in the paper on the impact of council tax reform on any of the following: groups who share protected characteristics; island communities; businesses or organisations in the public, private or third sector; and your local area?’
• Question 16: ‘Please provide any other comments or views on the consultation themes or council tax reform that you have not been able to share above?’

Chapter 5 provides a summary of the key themes across the discussions at the five public engagement events.