ONE of Scotland’s largest Labour-led local authorities has become the first to announce that it will not raise council tax in the next year.

South Lanarkshire Council said it would pledge to the area’s “147,000 households” that it would take the freeze for lower bands into its 10th year when its sets its budget in the coming weeks.

The Herald understands the move follows a meeting between several Labour-led urban authorities in recent weeks, with the others expected to follow suit.

The council tax freeze is to end in 2017, meaning all properties could potentially see their bill rise. MSPs voted last week to increase the top four bands of council tax, E to H, which will rise from April.

It comes despite frequent attacks on the SNP policy by high-profile Labour figures, with the party’s former local government spokeswoman blaming it for jobs and services cuts and a recent leader of the country’s biggest authority regularly calling for it to be scrapped.

The SNP said several in Labour risked accusations of “the worst kind of cynical political opportunism” if they now supported a prolonged freeze.

The move comes on the eve of council leaders and local government organisations giving evidence in parliament on next month’s budget for Scotland’s 32 authorities.

Writing in today’s Herald, the leader of Glasgow City Council, Frank McAveety, said finance chiefs expected the country’s four rebel local authorities to be facing a near £200million cut, or £140-per-person, this coming year.

Speaking on behalf the Scottish Local Government Partnership, which also includes Aberdeen, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire, Mr McAveety will tell Holyrood the four authorities expect the cuts for their areas to total £1billion by 2021.

South Lanarkshire leader Eddie McAvoy said that despite the anticipated cuts to the local government grant next year there would be no council tax rise.

He said: “The council has a tough job ahead to balance the budget for next year. But we know that our residents are struggling with their budgets too. That’s why the council administration has decided not to increase council tax bills, even though the freeze has been ended by the government.

“I know this move will be welcomed across South Lanarkshire, especially by those who are having difficulty making ends meet. Costs are rising everywhere and I think it is right that we do not add to the burden on our residents.

“We could in theory put up the council tax by as much as three per cent and that would undoubtedly have made it easier to balance the budget.”

An SNP source accused Labour of “flip-flopping between supporting and opposing the freeze depending on whether an election was near”.

The source added: “If those Labour councillors are now going to promise to maintain the council-tax freeze then the public will know their previous opposition was the worst kind of cynical political opportunism.”

In today’s Herald Mr McAveety said: “We have consistently called for more devolved powers to local councils so we can raise extra revenues, boost training, investment and jobs, while regenerating our cities.

“The future of local government finances has never looked so bleak and we hope that Nicola Sturgeon will re-examine the way funds are currently distributed and realise that while these cuts continue, wholesale reform of the current system is essential.”