EVERY household in South Lanarkshire will be hit by the maximum-possible rise in council tax as only the Conservative Group voted against the SNP administration’s raid on residents’ pockets.

The three per cent increase applies to all bands and will take effect from April.

It was put forward by the minority Nationalist administration at a meeting of the council on Wednesday (28 February) and passed with the support of the independent and Liberal Democrat councillors.

A Conservative amendment would have instead levied only a one per cent rise, but that was voted down as the Labour Group decided to abstain.

Councillor Eric Holford, the Tories’ finance spokesman, told the packed chamber the Nationalists’ proposed three per cent tax hike was “a poor response to an unsuitable settlement from the SNP government in Holyrood”.

He argued: “The UK Government gave the SNP Scottish Government a net increase in its revenue, yet Holyrood failed to reflect this in our settlement, instead handing us a net cut.

“Despite this, the South Lanarkshire’s Conservatives were able to show a balanced and forward-looking budget was possible.

“We presented a fully-funded budget that addresses South Lanarkshire’s needs without imposing a punitive three per cent council tax increase on our hard working and already hard-pressed residents.”

The maximum council tax increase is the latest tax hike imposed by the SNP and will take effect at the same time as the Nationalists’ rise in income tax.

That will see anyone earning £26,000 per year in Scotland pay more if they than they would anywhere else in the UK.