Tuesday February 24th 2026
East Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
East Lothian residents will see council tax increase by 7.5% from April after a budget put forward by the council’s Labour administration was approved.
The Labour group presented its cross party budget for the year with the support of Scottish Greens councillor Shona McIntosh and independent councillor Kenny McLeod to a meeting earlier today promising to focus on young people, support vulnerable residents and invest in services.
An alternative budget from the SNP group which argued for a lower 5.8% council tax rise was rejected while the Conservative group councillors abstained from the vote for the second year running with group leader Councillor George McGuire telling the meeting: “I cannot support anything above a five per cent increase”.
The approved budget includes a 7% rise for council tenants rent while the SNP had called for a higher 8% increase which they said would release a further £6million in investment.
While both budgets were ruled competent by council officers the Labour/cross party proposal was passed by 12 votes to five with three abstentions.
SNP group leader Councillor Lyn Jardine had told the meeting the administration backed budget would put pressure on already struggling working families urging them to look beyond increasing revenue.
She said: “In difficult times leadership is not about how much you can raise, it is about who you choose to protect.”
However Labour councillor Ruaridh Bennett backed the higher council tax increase saying: “This rise, along with balanced budget services, allows this council to continue delivering services for our residents and invest in our communities.”
Among the additional investment approved were £100,000 extra funding for additional holiday camp places for children with disabilities, £140,000 for specialist youth workers in the west of the county which has been affected by antisocial behaviour issues and a £100,000 investment in a new gritter and staff to increase the winter workforce.
They also agreed an increase in the annual funding for the Integration Joint Board which funds health and social care services of £3.3million.
Councillor Shona McIntosh said while she supported the administration led budget and accepted council tax was ‘the biggest lever we have’ she believed it should be scrapped and a new system introduced mention the land value reform.
However council leader Norman Hampshire said: “For as long as I have been a councillor different political parties have said ‘what do we do about council tax’, everyone has looked at it and the alternatives are really difficult.
“My own personal view is there needs to be some sort of property tax, whether you can find a way of taking people out of the bottom end of it? But the people that have the bigger properties, they are the kind of people who can avoid tax, but they can’t hide the property. It is there and you know where it is and can always get that money from there.
“At the end of the day we need more money to provide the services to the residents of East Lothian.”
Following the meeting Mr Hampshire welcomed the support for the budget saying: ““Although it is a very difficult decision to take, increasing council tax by 7.5% helps us to balance the budget alongside other cost reduction measures, enabling us to protect services for the benefit of local residents as far as possible.”
Full details of the budget are available on the council website.
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