Cunninghame South SNP candidate Ruth Maguire has welcomed the Scottish Government’s council tax revamp.

She says the money raised from reforms will be invested in North Ayrshire schools.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced last week that rates paid by those in Bands E, F, G and H will be adjusted - seeing the most expensive households pay up to £500 more and generate £100million to be invested in education.

Councillor Maguire, who currently represents Irvine West, says planned reforms will also provide additional support for those on low incomes – with low income families across all bands seeing an extension of the council tax reduction scheme, benefitting 77,000 families by an average of £173 per year.

There will be additional support for 54,000 low income families – more than one third of which are pensioner households – living in higher band properties, who will also be entitled to an exemption from the changes through the council tax reduction scheme.

Speaking this week, Councillor Maguire, who hopes to succeed SNP colleague Margaret Burgess as MSP for Cunninghame South, said: “The reform to council tax announced by the First Minister this week meets the key tests of making the system fairer, more progressive and locally empowering, in line with the principles agreed by all the parties on the Commission on Local Tax Reform.

“The progressive plans will see three quarters of households in Scotland paying the same or even less, while those at the top will pay a bit more in order to fund a major new investment in our local schools.

“We’ll also see new support for low-income families – supporting 140,000 children and their families to the tune of an average of £173 per year – and additional protection for low-income households in higher bands, many of whom are pensioners.

“While Labour are planning to hike taxes across the board, hurting even the lowest-income workers in North Ayrshire, the SNP in government has chosen to take a different approach – asking those at the top to pay a bit more, while providing additional financial relief to low income families.”

Labour rival Councillor Joe Cullinane, however, was unimpressed with the announcement.

He said: “The SNP have promised to replace the “unfair” Council Tax for nine years. It is embarrassing that, after all that time, they have failed to deliver that reform and a minimal change to banding, with no revaluation, is the best they could come up with.

“COSLA have described it as ‘The Scottish Government Tax’ as it further erodes local democracy whilst UNISON describe it as “tinkering”.

“This plan will generate less than £2million extra for North Ayrshire Council next year. To put that in context, the local council’s grant was cut by the SNP by over £10million this year. This announcement does nothing to stop the austerity that is being imposed on our communities by the Tory and SNP Governments.

“Scottish Labour would use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to set income tax 1p higher than that set by Tory Chancellor George Osborne, a policy that would generate enough additional revenue to stop all the cuts to public services such as our public toilets, libraries and community wardens with enough left over to provide a £100 rebate to the lowest earners, meaning they are actually better off under our plan.”