COUNCILS should take charge of Scotland's buses, energy and broadband, a think tank has said.

The radical shake-up would see privately owned services nationalised.

However, councils rather than the government would be placed in charge

Services should be run along similar lines to the publicly owned Lothian buses, it was claimed.

The left wing Jimmy Reid foundation calls for a "municipal" form of public ownership.

In a report published tomorrow (Mon), it said that would be a radical alternative to privatisation and monolithic state ownership.

Dave Watson, its author, said it would allow councils to cut fares and tackle pollution.

Watson, head of policy at public sector union Unison Scotland, said bus deregulation and privatisation had led to increased fares.

He said: "Bus de-regulation has not been a success.

"The market ideology of healthy competition has not happened, meaning bus users often have no alternative but to shut up and take it.

"In the past ten years bus fares have risen by almost 50 per cent.

"A stronger role for local government in transport would give them the power to tackle air pollution, reduce climate emissions and halt rising fares."

However, bus industry body, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said nationalisation would harm services.

A CPT spokesman said: "Handing responsibility for providing bus services to the public sector will only transfer costs and revenue risk without benefitting bus passengers in any measurable way."

Andrew Jarvis, managing director of First buses in Scotland added: “The private sector is much better placed to access the finance to deliver the fleet of low emission and high quality buses that customers now demand whilst being able to be fully responsive and agile to the changing market as people’s travel habits change."

Meanwhile, Watson said that gas and renewable energy should also come under local authority control.

He said that model was widespread in America and European nations such as Denmark.

Watson said: "Utilities used to be an important part of local government and they remain so in many parts of Europe and North America.

"There are some 2000 municipally owned electric utilities, supplying around a quarter of all energy in the USA."

"In Denmark 80 per cent of energy is supplied by collectivist institutions."

Watson said councils could run energy services on a not-for-profit basis.

He said that would free up cash to tackle fuel poverty and cut energy bills.

Watson said: "Municipally-owned energy companies that can supply electricity and gas at competitive prices and don’t have to distribute profits to private shareholders.

"By targeting those on low incomes, they can also help tackle fuel poverty."

The Scottish Government has launched plans to set up a state-owned energy company.

A government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government has set out its ambitions for a public energy company and its contribution towards tackling fuel poverty."

The spokeswoman added that the government's transport bill would allow councils to run their own buses.

Meanwhile, Watson suggested councils could also take over the running of broadband services.

He said: "If we look to the USA there has been a big increase in local municipal ownership of high-speed internet systems."