Even though she is working with the Tories to secure a No vote in September’s independence referendum, it was deeply disappointing that Katy Clark MP chose to attack the SNP in last week’s ‘News’ for supposedly not doing enough to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax – a tax designed and introduced by Labour and imposed on private tenants in the last Parliament it should be remembered – rather than the UK Conservative Government that extended the tax to tenants in the socially rented sector.

The SNP Government has made it clear that as the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to abolish the bedroom tax, the best way to deal with its implications is by removing the discretionary housing payment (DHP) cap imposed by the UK Government. To date, the UK Government has not agreed. Once the DHP cap is lifted we can further help those suffering from the bedroom tax. All local authority chief executives have been told that the £50 million already committed to help every household in Scotland affected by the bedroom tax in Scotland is available.

The DHP scheme is the only legal way and the most straightforward – under the powers Scotland currently has – to provide regular financial payments directly to people on housing benefit. We have made a perfectly reasonable request to Westminster to remove the cap – it will cost the UK Government nothing and provide vital assistance to thousands of Scottish households.

Sadly, Ms Clark and her Labour colleagues prefer to undermine and attack the SNP on this issue, rather than her Tory/Lib Dem allies in the No campaign. Of course, the obvious way to get rid of the bedroom tax is by voting Yes in September.

Regarding Cllr McNamara’s letter, his comments simply beggar belief! He echoes Ms Clark in avoiding criticism of the Tories while denouncing the SNP and claims Labour want to ‘renew local communities.’ They had 13 years in charge at Westminster, eight at Holyrood and decades in North Ayrshire to do so. Only now the SNP is pushing for independence has Labour been shaken from its complacency and scurried to come up with something, anything that might stop the SNP.

As they don’t actually believe what they are advocating, it is hardly surprising that most of their half-baked proposals make no sense, such as making it illegal for Scotland to have lower taxes than England, while England can introduce lower taxes and have a competitive advantage over Scotland. Of course, this is nothing new; rates were 5p in the £ higher in Scotland before the SNP came to power and abolished that disadvantage.

Cllr McNamara, accuses the SNP of ‘centralising power’ when it was the SNP in 2007 that abolished the ring-fencing and direct control of council budgets from Edinburgh. However he really takes the biscuit in attacking the SNP funding of local government.

Just after the SNP came to power, on May 24, 2007 Labour’s Wendy Alexander - three months before becoming Labour’s short-lived leader at Holyrood - attacked the SNP for not slashing local government funding, claiming it was ‘fatter’ than in the rest of the UK.

According to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in Scotland, ‘the only logical consequence would be an adverse impact on service delivery. £310 million would be the annual reduction.’ So Labour would have cut council budgets if in power and even without a recession. Of course, Cllr McNamara knows that both Labour and Coalition UK Westminster Governments have reduced Scotland’s fixed budget by 11%, more than £3.5 billion a year since 2009. Inevitably, cuts have fallen on local government as the SNP pledged and delivered a commitment to maintain NHS funding at least in line with inflation.

By contrast, in Wales Labour slashed NHS budgets by 8%. If Labour want more funding for councils, do they suggest we take it from the NHS, or if it’s the public – council tax rose 75% in the decade before the SNP froze it – how much more will people pay?

Interestingly, Cllr McNamara accused the SNP on the very day that Gordon Matheson, Labour Leader of Glasgow City Council demanded that the SNP Government agree to Labour’s proposals to switch £5.081 million of council funding from North Ayrshire Council to Glasgow City Council in April next year.

As Labour Leader on NAC, does Cllr McNamara agree with Cllr Matheson and, if so, can he explain what impact that would have on jobs and services in North Ayrshire?

Kenneth Gibson, MSP