A LEADING councillor is defending the rise in Dundee’s council tax which will see some residents in higher-band homes facing an increase of more than £600.

The city council voted to put up council taxes by 2.5 per cent for homes in lower bands – in common with many other Scottish local authorities – the first time the tax has risen in more than a decade.

Willie Sawers, the council’s finance spokesperson, told The National a programme of service development proposals funded by the rise would benefit the whole community and could see Dundee become the decommissioning capital of Scotland with the Dundeecom project.

“It’s very ambitious, but we’re following this on the basis of Forth Ports, who are investing £10 million upgrading the facilities at the port, so we’re working in partnership with the industry to bring work to the city.

“Clearly there are huge opportunities in decommissioning – a lot of the infrastructure in the North Sea is coming to the end of its useful life and there are opportunities there to be seized.”

Dundeecom is one of a number of projects that will reap some benefit from the rise in council tax.

Others aim to give more opportunities to young people, regenerate communities and improve their infrastructure, as well as support small businesses and give a voice to people who are living in poverty.

“We had a Fairness Commission that sat for over a year and it came up with a number of recommendations, one of which was to continue dialogue with people for whom life isn’t fair.

“We’re putting in money allied to some investment from the Scottish Government will enable us to continue our work hearing from people directly affected by poverty, benefit sanctions, having to rely on foodbanks to try to tailor our services better for them.”

Sawers says the tax rise is justified: “There’s been a freeze for more than 10 years and we’ve brought forward a range of investment proposals targeted on jobs, on young people and parents, so we believe our investments will meet people’s priorities across the city.

“We’re putting our money where our mouth is in community regeneration with investment of over £2m giving local communities a huge input into how that money’s spent, so local priorities will be met.

“If they have a bit of waste ground, for example, that they want grassed over to allow kids to play football on it that can be done.

“Buying football strips for the youngsters, to providing support for organisations that are helping older folk are other examples where people can determine how the money is spent.”

There will also be cash to increase the availability of housing for adults who require additional support to help maintain their tenancies to help ease delayed discharge from hospitals.