, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Well, is the business Costa, or is the business Costa per shop, because that makes a huge difference? Nothing against Costa or Starbucks or any of those, but I don't think they're in need of rate relief. If it isn't, I would like to see it aggregated. The…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Can I thank you for that? You made a decision yesterday to pass on large sums of money to continue non-domestic rates support. Can I ask you some questions on that? On that, is it a blanket reduction for small organisations, or—? What I'm really asking is…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Diolch, Cadeirydd. What is proposed in terms of changes to the non-domestic rates multiplier, and what impact has this had on the draft budget, but also, going forward, the long-term trend in future non-domestic rates revenue?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
But the big effect, isn't it, is the freezing of bands. That is the big effect on increasing the income tax we get, because if bands had gone up with inflation—. But they're not, they're frozen, therefore, as people get wage rises, lots of them will move into…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
There are going to be lots of suggestions. I hope you'll look at them.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
Just to make a final point, between 1945 and 1979, we built large-scale council houses without having large-scale Government investment. Local authorities borrowed over 60 years, and they paid the debt back through the rents. That worked. Councils can do that…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2023-24: Evidence session 1
On social homes, isn't there the possibility of them being funded either by registered social landlords or by local authorities? I think there is this idea—and it's a problem I believe we've got in Wales—that the Government is going to give money to do…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2023-24
It's obvious that the UK Government has not provided Wales with adequate funding to meet the current pressures. I appreciate that Welsh Ministers have had to make some very difficult decisions during the budgetary process. There was initial funding for Wales…
, Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
Will the Welsh Government make a statement on the effect of Airbnb on the rental housing market? Whilst there are some controls—I would argue not enough—on the development of houses in multiple occupation, there are no controls on Airbnb. What analysis of the…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
On 1 December, I, alongside the First Minister, was at Veeqo's official office opening at Technium 2, following their being taken over by Amazon—a success story of bringing highly paid employment into Swansea. This happened at least in part due to the…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
5. What action is the Welsh Government taking to develop the Swansea economy? OQ58857
, Plenary
Short Debate: Atomic dreams: Nuclear power and blind faith in an ageing technology
Can I also thank Mabon for giving me a minute of this debate and for what he said previously? We have, since Calder Hall in 1956, gone through a large number of nuclear-reactor types—Magnox, pressurised water reactor, advanced gas-cooled reactors, and now the…
, Plenary
Debate on a Member's Legislative Proposal—A British Sign Language (BSL) Bill
I will be supporting this legislative proposal today, and I urge all other Members to also support it. BSL is the first language of people in the deaf community. BSL is more like Chinese than English, where there is the use of hands as descriptors, rather…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
And, in English, what is the correlation between the number of pupils attending Welsh-medium schools between the ages of three and 18 and those who are showing as being able to speak and write Welsh?
, Plenary
Topical Questions
I speak Welsh every day, but, as Members here know, not very well. I also know that children in primary schools across Swansea also speak Welsh every day at school. Two questions: are we asking the right question on the census? Should we ask how often people…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank the First Minister for that response, but there is still a shortage of houses for rent and there's a serious problem with homelessness, including people who are inadequately housed. The only time that we have had, since the second world war, housing…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
5. Will the First Minister provide an update on the provision of social housing in Wales? OQ58811
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
[Inaudible.] [Laughter.]
, Plenary
Debate on the Finance Committee Report—'Post-EU funding arrangements'
Can I recommend Members read the full report? Because there are some very interesting things in there, not just the recommendations and the committee views and conclusions, which normally most of us read in reports of committees we're not on. On 1 January…
, Plenary
Debate on the Finance Committee Report—'Post-EU funding arrangements'
Will you take an intervention? Can I say what you've heard me say a number of times? It would help if both the Welsh Government and the Westminster Government showed their workings rather than just giving us a number at the end.
, Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
I'm asking for two Government statements. The first is an update on transport proposals for the Swansea bay city region. I've been told that, from December 2022, timetable changes for west Wales to Cardiff mean that there are no trains calling in Llansamlet…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
There are huge variabilities between surgeries' access. There are some excellent surgeries in my constituency, including Clydach and Strawberry Place, neither of which is my surgery. Over 90 per cent of my constituency complaints regarding GP surgeries'…
, Plenary
Motion to approve the Senedd Commission Budget for 2023-24
Can I thank the Commissioner for his statement? And I very much welcome what he's said today, although, in one respect, I don't, because it's altered exactly what I was going to say in my speech this afternoon. I was a member of the Finance Committee that…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Autumn Statement and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
I welcome the Minister's statement. I sum the Westminster Government's autumn statement up as very disappointing, but not disastrous. After 12 years of Conservative Government in Westminster and a decade of austerity, the UK is in a deep recession and…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Autumn Statement and Economic and Fiscal Forecasts
I thought it was a debate. Sorry.
