MUCH has been said lately about the issue of budgets across all levels. From the cost of living to our local council in Inverclyde, from the Scottish Government and of course to last week’s UK budget. It is often quite difficult to work out where our money goes and what layer of government funds which public services.

When knocking on doors or chatting to voters, I am often asked to clarify this. It is certainly important that people know where all their tax money goes and which public services benefit from it. I sit in Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee and even we struggle to follow every pound that churns through the government machine.

What I do hear often is that people do not feel the value for money from their taxes. They give their hard-earned wages to the different levels of government and want to see good public services in return. This is perhaps why impassioned debates have erupted about the higher Scottish Income Tax set by the SNP and Inverclyde’s decision to defy the council tax freeze, raising it by 8 per cent in their latest budget.

Inverclyde residents will rightly question why they should pay more when many in our community are struggling already. Many will point out that the Scottish Government slashed council funding by £156m in this year’s budget. Councils were simply left to make tough calls on cuts and fee rises. I have much sympathy for the quarter of Scottish councils that feared bankruptcy last year, being tasked with making sure essential services are properly funded and that their books are balanced at a time of unprecedented financial difficulty.

Humza Yousaf clearly thought his council tax freeze was a big vote winner but the reality is that our councils are running out of money. I think Inverclyde’s council tax rises are too high for people to afford, my local Conservative councillors agree. But the so-called 'fully funded' offer by Ministers of a council tax freeze is also unsustainable and will only result in cutting services and raising fees.

There is much that people disagree on politically, but surely value for money and fairness should be something we should all agree on. Voters will decide this when the time comes to have their say.