It was the Greens’ opposition day debate in the Scottish Parliament. They chose to hold it on local government finance.

It was a worthy subject, but they were a little muted. Their Andy Wightman made a speech which pretty much said “The Council Tax is bad. Let’s replace it with something.”

Don’t get me wrong, this was fine as far as it went. It was certainly a million miles better than the Tories and SNP who voted together to keep the Council Tax that the latter had once railed against.

If you are one of those liberals whose hearts beat a little faster at the mention of Land Value Taxation, you might want to sit down and have some smelling salts handy. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie espoused that old liberal idea from the dawn of time, saying that it would change the way our society and economy works in a fair and just way. Here’s his speech in full:

We have heard from Murdo Fraser and James Kelly that the SNP has been on a journey with the council tax. There was a time when it would take every opportunity to condemn it. Alex Salmond called it unfair and insisted that he would scrap it, but he did not. Nicola Sturgeon said—quite strongly—that she “hated” it. She went on to criticise any suggestion that it should be tinkered with, but then she did that.

Now SNP members seem to be the staunchest defenders of the council tax. When they secured the support of the Greens and the Labour Party for their arbitrary increases to the council tax, I argued that those would not be the first steps towards further reforms but the last steps. We have heard from the minister this afternoon that we will have to get a consensus across the Parliament from the other parties before he will even consider taking our proposals forward. Rather than being with us on developing a consensus, he is going to be a bystander, and his long-grass amendment confirms that.

I commend the Greens for trying again after they were convinced to back the Government last time. Andy Wightman used to make the case that the Government’s previous set of council tax changes violated international law, which was not an argument that I heard him make this afternoon. He cited article 4, article 9 and article 9(3) of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, and he made a convincing case that the Government’s council tax proposals were illegal, before he voted for those same proposals. I wish the Greens well in changing the Government’s mind this time. They seem to be pretty determined not to vote for the budget unless there are changes, and we will be with them on that. We favour the ending of the council tax, as it is unfair.

A land value tax is our alternative, as it would levy a charge based on the real economic value of the land, rather than just on the property on that land. It would be reflective of how well that land was serviced and what value it could deliver for the benefit of wider society. There is a strong set of lobbyists and enthusiasts who believe that a land value tax could be the best way not just of raising the revenue but of shaping the way our society and economy works in a fair and just way.

If we are to deliver change, it must be change that enhances local democracy. I was disappointed with the minister’s earlier comments in favour of capping, because that undermines local democracy. The new local government tax must be a truly local tax that is set locally. That means leaving it to local authorities to set the rate that is right for them, and it must be a step towards allowing councils to raise the majority of the money that we spend. That is our proposal as we enter into this debate in a genuine and optimistic way.