Johann Lamont urges council tax rethink 27 October 2013 Last updated at 14:05 The leader of the Labour party in Scotland has suggested there needs to be a rethink of how local government is funded. Johann Lamont said the current council tax freeze was not working. It comes as an academic advising Labour on how to reduce public spending branded the council tax freeze a "major problem" for councils. Professor Arthur Midwinter said it was an "inefficient use of public money." The academic told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper by failing to ring-fence some anti-poverty funds, the Scottish government had allowed money to be swallowed up elsewhere as councils tried to patch over cuts. "The result is that about £1bn of targeted spend on poverty has disappeared," he warned. Some policies, such as the council tax freeze and fee-free prescriptions, benefited middle and upper income households, he argued. Prof Midwinter's view on council tax is at odds with Labour's message in the Dunfermline by-election, according to the SNP. SNP MSP Linda Fabiani also attacked Ms Lamont for claiming in her interview on the BBC's Sunday Politics programme that she had not used the expression "something for nothing" in relation to people in Scotland benefiting from universal services. Ms Fabiani said: "Scottish Labour is now in a mess about its Cuts Commission. Contrary to what Labour tried to pretend in Dunfermline, and despite Ms Lamont's denial of her own words, they are clearly proposing a cuts agenda to Scotland's public services. These gains of the Scottish Parliament - services delivered by the SNP government - are already effectively and efficiently managed. Labour need to come clean about what they want to cut, and Johann Lamont needs to be honest about what she said. On the BBC's Sunday Politics, Ms Lamont said she would need to look at Prof Midwinter's report in detail. However, she called for a discussion on how to fund local authorities in Scotland, saying the council tax was "discredited." Ms Lamont said the freeze in the cost of the council tax, which has been in place since 2007 and looks set to continue until 2017, was underfunded by government and had hit local services. She said: "I want a discussion not where the parties get dividing lines between each other but come together and address the challenge of how do you properly build a confidence in the way you raise taxes locally?"