, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Perfect. Section 18 of the Bill is making a provision for council tax discounts, disregards and exemptions. Obviously, there's about 50 at the moment, and there are plans that they will probably stay the same, from the evidence that you've given previously. I…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government
And you couldn't see a future scenario where you brought it in line with the Senedd term cycle.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government
It's funny that you should mention the IFS then, because one of the things that was brought up in the—. Sorry, I have feedback because I'm listening to the sound of my own voice, and it's a bit disconcerting. One of the things that was brought up with the IFS…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you, Chair, and thanks ever so much for coming in this morning. I just want to talk about the proposals for council tax. As you'll be aware, one of the concerns is that, having not been revalued for nearly 20 years, there's going to be a big impact on…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership: South Wales Fire and Rescue Service review of culture and values—Next steps
Thank you for your statement today, Deputy Minister. I agree that it is overwhelmingly clear that the management team at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service are the ones who have been instrumental in allowing this unsavoury and harmful culture to fester…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 6
Yes.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 6
Thank you, Chair. And to just come back, there, to what Carolyn was saying, even with my eyesight, these days, I struggle to read the public notices, but I also think that the formality of them as well puts people off engaging. Most people I know, when they…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 6
Thank you, Chair, and thanks, everyone, for coming in this morning. I think you're right—a lot of the questions I wanted to ask have already been answered, but I'd just like to ask a question of Rob, if I may. I know, in your written evidence, right at the…
, Plenary
Debate on petitions P-06-1359 and P-06-1362 concerning support for childcare costs
I would like to thank my committee Chair, Jack Sargeant, for opening and the petitioners for raising such an important petition topic. As we all know, childcare is one of the, if not the biggest financial drain on family and household budgets. Many families…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
First Minister, as you may be well aware, the combined homelessness and information network, CHAIN, commissioned and funded by the Greater London Authority, is a database of information recording people seen rough-sleeping by outreach teams in London…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Thank you, Chair. I'm conscious that it's in Swansea, so Mike might want to say more on it than I do, but I'm conscious also that it's now a live planning application, so I think the only thing we might be able to do, really, is maybe to wait to see the…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Thank you, Chair, and I just wanted to highlight again how important this petition is, really, and thank the petitioners, Friends of the Earth Cymru, for submitting it. I think there's not really much more we can do, but we could look at keeping it open to…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Just for the record, I have family members with EDS.
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Thank you, Chair. I agree with what you said, but, because I know in the past we have talked about visiting, I don't know if it's something that the committee wants to do before closing it, or if there's any need to do it. I don't know. But, if not, I'm happy…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
Thank you, Chair. Unfortunately, I don't know what we can do as a committee. The Deputy Minister has been quite thorough in his response, albeit a brief response, and has basically said that they're not going to be devolving responsibilities to north Wales…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Again, I recognise the concerns of the petitioner here, and I agree, to some extent, with what Mike was saying about how disinformation can feed a lot of this. There's not much more we can do as a committee, because I know it's been debated extensively in the…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Thank you for that, Mike, and thank you, Chair, for allowing me to come back in. I think there's a misunderstanding there in terms of our policy. We're not against 20 mph zones where needed outside schools, libraries and maybe in cases such as this. The…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Thank you, Chair. Unfortunately, this petition highlights the issues and concerns residents have with the rationale behind the new 20 mph roll-out. And as you can see, this is an area that is crying out for that but hasn't been included, and they want to know…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Peredur touched upon something that I was going to bring up anyway about the difficulty charities have in terms of spending that money in Palestine. But the concern I'd also want to emphasise is—. I think it was just an hour ago the European Union released…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Thank you, Chair. I'll be honest, I sympathise with the petitioner here in terms of the environmental impact that releasing balloons can have, especially in this day and age when we're meant to be more aware of our footprint. But the concern then ultimately…
, Petitions Committee
New petitions
Thank you, Chair. I'm conscious of the Minister's response that there are no plans, but I remember questioning the Minister, back when I first got in, in 2021, maybe 2022, about the consultation that the Government was running about congestion zones, and he…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill - Evidence session 4
I know one of the main concerns that was expressed to me—. I used to be a councillor, and so obviously when we had the COVID payments I had quite a lot of businesses in my ward coming to me, trying to get their properties revalued in order to claim the…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill - Evidence session 4
Thank you for that. I suppose the concern that I have is when you think about how much pressure businesses are under, and I suppose especially in the pub trade, it's just another element of bureaucracy that makes people think, 'Well, why bother? Why do I need…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill - Evidence session 4
I know that one of the proposals is also to allow the VOA to have civil penalties to almost enforce compliance. I think I can guess your views, but can you just explain if you've got concerns? I suppose you might be supportive of this—I don't know. But just…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill - Evidence session 4
Thanks ever so much for the clarification there. It was interesting when you said about how the onus seems to be on the business, but not on the valuation office, to have that transparency and that quick turnaround. I was just wondering what Robin and Llŷr…
