Council leaders are demanding an emergency meeting with Humza Yousaf after refusing to accept his surprise plan to freeze council tax next year.

The local authority umbrella group Cosla said there was “real anger” over the issue, saying it flew in the face of councils’ recent deal with the Scottish Government. 

“We deplore the way the announcement was made and its substance,” Cosla said.

Mr Yousaf used his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen on Tuesday to announce a freeze in the council tax next year to help with the cost-of-living crisis.

The announcement came as a surprise both to councils and the SNP’s partners in Government, the Scottish Greens, who were given only a few hours’ notice.

The freeze had two elements - abandoning a plan to restructure the tax to raise bills for Band E to H houses by 7.5 to 22.5% from April, and paying councils not to raise the levy as part of their annual budget setting process in the spring.

The restructuring was due to raise around £175m and the annual rise around £100m. 

Ministers have said they will compensate councils for the latter element, but that is now subject to negotiations.

In June, the Scottish Government signed a “New Deal for Local Government” known as the Verity House Agreement that promised “no surprises” for council budgets.

Cosla said Mr Yousaf’s conference announcement broke that promise.

Council leaders held an emergency meeting this morning, insisting afterwards there was “absolutely no agreement” to freeze the council tax despite Mr Yousaf’s announcement.

In a joint statement, Cosla’s SNP President Shona Morrison and its Independent Vice-President Steve Heddle condemned the Government’s actions.

They said: “The announcement of a council tax freeze… was made completely without reference to local government and there is no agreement to freeze council tax next year, the decision to freeze council tax is one which can only be made by councils.

“Our cross-party group leaders held an emergency meeting first thing this morning on the back of the announcement and there is real anger at the way this has been handled and what it puts at risk.

“On the back of this our Political Group leaders also asked us to seek an urgent meeting with the First Minister.  

“We deplore the way the announcement was made and its substance, both of which fly in the face of the Verity House Agreement which we all recently signed. 

“It has been shown that previous council tax freezes have been regressive, having no impact for the poorest in society and eroding the council tax base, compounding councils' ongoing underfunding.

“We will explore the implications arising and what the Scottish Government might propose when we meet with the Deputy First Minister later today - but we are clear that local taxation and particularly Council Tax should be left for democratically elected councils to determine.”

The SNP froze council tax for nine years until 2017 and then again in 2021/22 during the Covid pandemic, paying councils extra money to offset an annual rise of around.

It was one of the party’s most popular policies, and its revival was widely seen as Mr Yousaf trying to placate voters in the run-up to next year’s general election.

The prospect of structural council tax rises were also used by Labour to attack the SNP in the recent Rutherglen & Hamilton West by-election.

With councils facing a wave of higher wage demands from staff, authority leaders had been counting on locally-set tax rises to help balance their books.

Trade union leaders also attacked Mr Yousaf’s plan this morning, with the STUC branding it “electioneering at its worst”.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham told BBC Radio Scotland his organisation had no idea about the plan, despite having representatives at the conference. 

He said: “It was something of a surprise to find that £100 million has just been discovered in the cupboard that wasn’t there a few days ago.

“I’m afraid to be slightly cynical and say it’s party conference season and that’s really what’s brought it about. But it really is a bad policy at a bad time.”

He added: “What the First Minister didn’t say is that we pay on average about £500 less per person up north than they do down south.

“This is something the Scottish Government has developed over a decade, and the effect of that has been an incredible squeeze on local government services, and that has to stop.

“This announcement doesn’t help, but it’s electioneering at its worst.”

The Scottish Greens have also said they are “concerned about the effect this freeze could have on already-strained frontline public services if it is not properly funded”. 

The independent Local Government Information Unit, which supports councillors and their staff, said it was "deeply concerned" about the "backward step".

LGIU Scotland chief executive Jonathan Carr-West said:  "The lack of consultation with local government demonstrates a failure of the principles of trust and respect that should be the foundation of the working relationship between the Scottish Government and local authorities and which are at the heart of the Verity House Agreement. 

"Freezing council tax should be a decision for councils, not for central government.

"Even where those freezes are funded by grants, the loss of growth in the council tax base undermines the council’s finances for years to come.  

"Everyone aspires to a sustainable, stable future for local government finances but this can only be achieved by giving councils control, not by imposing decisions upon them. 

Scotland had seemed to be making good progress in this regard with the Verity House Agreement and commitments to empowering local government. So it’s disappointing to see this backward step.”

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Yousaf said: “We will make sure councils are funded by the Government for that council tax freeze.

“Let’s be frank with each other, we’re living in a cost of living crisis.

“I, in my constituency surgeries, see people who are on above average salaries come to my constituency offices and ask for financial help.

"People who are nurses, who are police officers, who are teachers.

“Therefore it is right that in this cost of living crisis we try to help them with bills that are rising and rising and rising – one bill we are able them to help with is the council tax.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The freeze announced yesterday, fully funded by the Scottish Government, will benefit every council tax-payer in Scotland at a time when rising prices are putting significant strain on household finances.

“The Scottish Government remains wholly committed to the Verity House Agreement and, as part of that, are continuing work with Cosla on a new fiscal framework for local authorities.

“We are also working on longer term reforms to the council tax system, which are being considered by the working group on local government funding that we are chairing jointly with Cosla.

“Both the First Minister and Deputy First Minister are meeting local authorities as a priority to discuss their concerns.”