Highland Council approve 7% tax rise

At today’s full council meeting the previously trailed seven per cent rise in council tax for 2026/27 was made official following a vote.

A planned increase of seven per cent each year up until 2028/29 is also in the pipeline.

The decision to increase council tax will see Highlanders living in the cheapest Band A properties pay an extra £71.27 a year with those in Band H forking out £261.91 more a year.

Skye and Raasay Councillor, Ruraidh Stewart, attempted to lower this year’s increase to three and a half per cent, but his amendment lost the vote – three to 54.

The administration’s original 2026/2027 budget plan was agreed in full after opposition leader Councillor Alasdair Christie’s (Inverness Ness-side) amendment was voted down 22 to 41.

However, one of the three amendments proposed did manage to receive enough support from councillors to be added into the budget plan.

That was Wick and East Caithness Councillor, Andrew Jarvie’s, “two pronged approach”  to clear the immediate backlog of children awaiting an ADHD assessment, redesigning the assessment model to increase its capacity by partnering with Glasgow University clinical researchers.

His speech related back to his own experience with ADHD, quoting a school report stating he was so distractible he could distract himself in a cardboard box.

Cllr Jarvie’s amendment will be funded over two years by the Transformation Reserve, totalling £1.2 million.

The administration’s £868 million budget will not only see council tax rise but prices for school meals, the use of public toilets, burials, cremations, headstones, and the sale of lairs will all rise by 3.8 per cent too.

Council Leader Raymond Bremner called the budget “commendable” in his opening speech, explaining the council had to get the “balance right” in the face of increasing financial pressures and a lack of Scottish Government funding.

Owners of second homes and long-term empty properties will also be hit hard by the new budget, with council tax for second homes to be charged at 300 per cent the normal rate and long-term empty properties facing charges at 250 per cent the normal rate, both levels set to rise even further in subsequent years.

Council convener Bill Lobban, dubbed it a “carrot and stick” approach as the council aims to bring more properties onto the market to help ease the Highland housing crisis.