SCOTLAND'S councils need greater fiscal autonomy to help combat the impending crippling effects of austerity on vital local services and jobs, experts claim.

As a commission set up to examine alternatives to the Council Tax heads into its final days, there have also been warnings any changes to the current set-up will create winners and losers, with some households inevitably paying more.

It comes as new figures show the total cost of the Council Tax freeze, if it continues throughout the next parliamentary term, to be the equivalent of four new Forth Road Bridges.

Scotland's political leaders have now been urged to reach a consensus over reforming the Council Tax, amid descriptions of the seven-year freeze as "poisonous" and claims it is fuelling cuts to care, education, as well as jobs.

Green MSP Alison Johnstone, whose party has consistently argued for reform of local taxation, said the debate was one "we cannot afford to duck any longer".

She added: "We probably all know of a community centre facing closure, increased care charges or cuts to nurseries and libraries. We are long overdue a replacement for the Council Tax.

"Given the squeeze on household finances eight years ago you can see why the Council Tax freeze seemed like a good idea to some. As these figures show it was never sustainable and we're now seeing cuts to vital public services as a result."

Despite a growing acceptance that the current local taxation system is unfair and the freeze routinely criticised it has proved popular with voters, with party leaders fearful of the electoral consequences of ditching it.

The Commission on Local Tax Reform, which will report in the autumn, has been presented as an opportunity to end the policy, which it is claimed will only become a greater drain on Scottish Government resources.

However, a more progressive tax system is likely to encounter strong opposition in some quarters, with one proposal, a land value tax, likely to see most bills reduce in all but the most expensive properties.

Other options include a local income tax, once backed by the SNP but later dropped, or property value tax.

Professor Kenneth Gibb, one of the experts informing the commission, attacked the Council Tax freeze, which he said was now taking up massive resources which could be spent elsewhere.

He said: "There's a democratic issue which is very important. The longer it goes on, the more entrenched it gets and it's poisonous for the principle of local government being responsible for its own finances.

"To make local government work, we need to have some degree of financial responsibility and if people don't like tax increases, they can vote people out."

The Glasgow University housing expert added that a system that combined income and property values to assess rates could prove attractive.

He said: "The winners say not very much while the losers will be very noisy. The asset rich, cash poor households are always pulled out, and there are ways to accommodate that such as tax deferral, [meaning back-taxes are paid when the house is sold. That makes a lot of sense, but people feel threatened by it and being told they're going to lose capital is a fear factor."

The Scottish Government would face a bill of £910million a year by 2020/21 to plug the gap in finances, leaving a total cost of £6.3 billion for a policy that has been in force since 2008.

Meanwhile the Queensferry Crossing scheme, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Scotland's recent history which will be the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world, is on course to cost £1.4 billion.

Jim McCafferty, of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation Scottish Association, said: "What better way to ditch the Council Tax freeze than by switching the local taxation system?"