Sunset at Tayport, Fife, one of the council areas involved in the pilot schemes, the first in the UK. Photograph: Simon Powis/Alamy
The councils in question, which span a cross-section of urban and rural demographics, are studying feasibility as part of their broader anti-poverty work. Joe Cullinane, the Labour leader of North Ayrshire council, said: We have high levels of deprivation and high unemployment, so we take the view that the current system is failing us and we need to look at something new to lift people out of poverty.
Basic income has critics and supporters on the left and right, which tells you there are very different ways of shaping it and we need to state at the outset that this is a progressive change, to remove that fear and allow people to have greater control over their lives, to enter the labour market on their own terms.
Cullinane also noted that while the Scottish government has asked councils to bid for a 250,000 grant between them, his administration had already set aside 200,000 in its budget for a feasibility study.
Dave Dempsey, the leader of the Conservative group on Fife council, who joined forces with its independent poverty advisory group Fairer Fife Commission to promote a potential pilot, the appeal revolves around the reduction of benefits bureaucracy. I come from a maths and engineering background and there is an elegance to it, he said.