, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Making sure that the local government formula does reflect adequately the various characteristics that our different local authorities have is important to this Government, and making sure that we understand wholly from local government and from councils how…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
The Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning is taking forward a review of the local government funding formula in partnership with local government.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
I have already, as a relatively new Minister still, started the work of discussing how we can move ahead in reviewing the 182-day threshold and to consider whether new exemptions are required on a national level in relation to this policy. I know that the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Our manifesto included a commitment to keep the 182-day letting threshold under review and create reasonable new exemptions where self-catering accommodation would not qualify as a private home. I will set out further details on our proposals in due course.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
I can certainly commit to intensifying those discussions. I hope that the UK Government can also commit to that level of intensity of discussions that we need to have. We need to reach a place between the UK Government and the Welsh Government where we are…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Securing fair rail funding for Welsh railways and addressing the HS2 injustice is a very important priority of ours. The UK Government has recognised that rail infrastructure in Wales has not been historically funded properly, and therefore it’s time to take…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
You'll know that the responsibility lies with the Minister for enterprise and energy on matters of renewable energy and infrastructure in Wales. The Minister, who happens to be one of the Members for the area that you also represent, in line with Plaid…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Yes. Most definitely, the cost of bad decisions should never be borne by those least likely, least able to afford to pay those costs, and they should be borne by those people who have initially transgressed. In our manifesto, we're committed to establishing a…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Well, certainly not by just simplistic financial measures, and I say that as the Minister for Finance. As I said in an earlier response, the responsibility to meet our net-zero objectives is a responsibility that cuts across all Government Ministers and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Although the plan for a net-zero Wales is the responsibility of the Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, it's a commitment for the entire Government. Strategic investment decisions will be made jointly, therefore, as we prepare for the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Thank you for that question again on Ceredigion Penfro. Of course, as we commit to assessing many aspects of the policies affecting businesses and the housing sector—such as council tax, such as business rates, such as the 182-day rule—we'll be doing that…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Yes, thank you for those supplementary questions. As you outline, striking the right balance on some of these policies is very important indeed, so that the pressures on the hospitality and self-catering sectors aren't too great, which means they're unable to…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
One advantage of having stood for election in the same constituency as Paul Davies is that I have also picked up on those same comments from the hospitality and tourism sectors. So, there are a number of aspects of the work of this Government—some of which…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Local taxes help to pay for vital public services across Wales, including in Ceredigion Penfro. This Government will also reform business rates to better support high-street businesses and explore ways of making council tax fairer.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Well, you've raised many of the considerations that the Government is looking at at this time, when it considers its position on the revaluation and any further changes to council tax. We are committed as a Government to look to see how council tax can be…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
The Welsh Government is currently considering whether it will do so or not.
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
As little as possible, I would say. I want to spend the Government's money on outcomes that stem from that preparatory work. I'm sure that you would share with me the desire, as we develop new policies or implement current policies more effectively, that we…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
No. From one supplementary budget, which is about part of the in-year adjustment of this Government's spending allocations, the people of Wales and nobody in this Chamber should, for one second, interpret that as a lack of commitment to climate change and to…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
We want to see equality between ourselves and Scotland in the powers and levers that we have. Prudent borrowing for any country, for any company, is not a bad thing. It allows a Government to invest. Investment of that kind is a component of getting our…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
I'm intrigued, and I think Mark Drakeford will be even more intrigued, to know that his chief cheerleaders in this Chamber, in the seventh Senedd, are Reform. I'm sure that he'll welcome that. We did not have full and open access to the books, and we…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Now, you started well and then you posed me probably one of the most difficult questions I will get as Minister—to compare myself to Mark Drakeford. I have huge respect for him, as he knows, and as this Chamber will know. There is a level of truth in both our…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
This policy is now passed over to local authorities. They have the discretion to introduce or not the visitor levy in their areas, and there are requirements of any local authority that's interested in introducing a visitor levy to undertake those assessments…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
A regulatory impact assessment and an integrated impact assessment were published alongside the legislation in the previous Senedd. It's a matter for local authorities to decide now whether they introduce the levy in their area, based on their own assessments…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
Well, we know that as a result of the review of fairness and the needs-based analysis of the Barnett formula from 2016 onwards that that has been of benefit to the public purse in Wales. But, as I've said already, the analysis of this Government, as it was of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Minister for Finance
You've almost answered your own question within your question. The difference for people in Flint and Wrexham that would be made by a fair funding settlement, by having that £850 million short-changed currently from the current spending review that I spoke of…
