, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Economy
As someone who used to work in iron and steel making, known as the heavy end, for British Steel, I believe we need the production of steel from iron into the finished product. An electric arc furnace depends on cheap and available scrap, plus cheap…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 4
And finally from me, the socioeconomic duty was introduced to deliver better outcomes for those who experience socioeconomic disadvantage. It came in in 2021. What impact do you think the duty is having? Do you think there’s sufficient evidence that Welsh…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 4
But you have to take it from somewhere. It's not as if—. If you start off with the assumption, 'We have an infinite sum of money and we want to do all the things we want to do', it's an ideal answer. But if you want to provide money for that—and I want to…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 4
Thank you very much. This is to Victoria. I can't remember if it's in here or somewhere else where you've written about it, but you do believe that free school meals need to be extended into secondary schools and you do believe free school meals ought to be…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 4
I'll carry on from where Rhianon thought I was going to carry on. What does the Welsh Government need to do to move from its pilot to mainstream gender budgeting tools in future budgets, and will that help?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Just very briefly back to you, David: 'For Wales, see England' on those issues.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Well, we had that problem before, didn't we? There was the Nuffield report in the early 2010s that showed productivity in terms of health, including consultants and—[correction: consultants and nurses]. They had lots more money, the money went up, but the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Thank you very much, David. Finally from me, we had before COVID and after COVID, and lots of things have changed in the post-COVID world, including how people work and including demand for services. We've also had the demographic changes, which were…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
But more spending on rail means less spending on buses, which are used by more people. But that's just a comment, David. I don't want you to reply to that. You and I have had this discussion several times over the last several years. Again, the Welsh…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Or to reduce the number of trains running at any one time.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Yes, okay. Thank you very much, David. If you could perhaps write to us about the use of financial transaction capital in housing, and I agree with you entirely—the use of Help to Buy has only pushed up house prices because you've put money into the demand…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Yes.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 3
Diolch, Cadeirydd. Welsh Government wants to do lots of things, many of which it's having difficulty doing. It wants to invest to meet its ambitions to meet net zero, it wants to mitigate climate change, and it wants to ensure adequate housing is being built…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
Yes, okay, thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
Okay, thank you very much. And finally from me: you mentioned there has been weak outturn data for commercial land transaction tax receipts since your February forecast, but don't these commercial land transaction receipts vary depending on one or two very…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
Okay. Thank you very much for that. You're assuming no divergence in house prices or transactions between Wales and the UK. Is that the whole of the UK, or is that the UK excluding London and the south-east? Because there are really two markets, aren't there…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
You have slightly downgraded residential land transaction tax forecasts for both main and additional rates. Will you be changing it again if interest rates fall?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
I think we're all familiar with the uncertainties, and predicting is a very difficult job to do. It's just how wrong you're going to be on your predictions and how close they come to reality. And that's not about you, it's about anybody who is making these…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 2
Your estimates, though, are incredibly important to how much we get, aren't they, in terms of our share of the income tax? You've increased it by £231 million. Will we get an extra £231 million, or will we have to wait for the outturn in 18 months or two…
, Plenary
Debate on a Statement: The Draft Budget 2024-25
There is no surprise that countries such as those in Scandinavia that have the highest taxes have the best public services. Taxation exists to pay for public services. Taxation is our entry price to a civilised society. Too many people believe that we can…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
We always talk about percentage increases—always very interesting—but the absolute amount and the per capita amount is much more meaningful. Are you going to publish the per capita amount, because I think you'd find that some authorities will have relatively…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
My final questions are on interest rates. I'm not asking you to predict interest rates next year. If I'd asked you to do that this time last year, you'd have been just as wrong as I was. So, you're not going to be able to do that. But are you going to look at…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
We'll treat it as a statement. It really is a point I wanted to make. Has there been any progress in terms of implementing your planned vacant land tax?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
In most years, the reconciliations are relatively small. Last year, the OBR's suggestion of how much income tax we would have was way out—nothing to do with the OBR, it's just that wages increased much more rapidly than anybody expected, therefore income tax…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 1
But would it not be possible for them to actually say, 'This is what we expect', and to allow you to use that money, but if you don't get all that money in, they take it back off you the following year? So, rather than getting more in the following year…
