, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
At the moment, with the funding available to us, we are providing the most generous package of support that we're able to do. And I don't want to not recognise, of course, the pressures that businesses are under, as the Member has described, and as we're…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm very grateful for those comments, and both council tax and non-domestic rates—our two local taxes—of course, are based on that property footprint, and, as such, they are very stable taxes, which is a benefit to us, and, as Mike Hedges recognises, they are…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
The revaluation came into force almost a year ago now, so we'll be moving into the second year. Some businesses in Wales did see an increase in their rates, but we did put transitional support in to support those businesses. And I think, actually, the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, reform is already happening, of course, because we had the revaluation come into force in March 2023. We recognised, of course, that that involved some transitional issues for businesses, which is why we put in place a really important transitional…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes, we're on track to deliver the programme of reforms that I set out for this Senedd term, with several initial improvements being made to coincide with the 2023 revaluation. The Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill has been introduced to deliver the range…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm very grateful for the question and that recognition, which I share, that all tiers of government must work together to make the most of the renewable opportunities that we have here in Wales. I think that floating offshore is one particular area that…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the Welsh Government's budget, and we support local authorities to scale up renewables by supporting free ports, growth deals, investing in local area energy plans, and direct funding through initiatives…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
I think, in and of itself, the 3.1 per cent can't do that. But when you look at the other sources of funding that local government have available to them—council tax, for example, and other ways in which they raise charges—that will certainly help. I'm not…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Well, the £800 million that goes to mental health is still the largest area of spend within the NHS. It's protected and ring-fenced, but, actually, what you do see in a number of health boards is that they provide additional funding over and above the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes. So, those grants come from individual ministerial portfolios to local government. There's over £1 billion in grants, so it is quite significant. But what we asked local authorities in terms of our programme for government commitment to reduce the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes, so, progress has been very good in terms of developing our thinking. We've got a stage 2 consultation out at the moment, and it looks at a whole range of things. But I think perhaps most pertinent are the scale and the pace of reform. So, on the scale…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
It's a difficult balance to strike, isn't it, in terms of putting certain things on the face of the Bill, which then are set unless changed by further primary legislation, or allowing a level of flexibility. And flexibility will be appropriate in many cases…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
A good example I think would be the work that we're doing at the moment on the Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill. So, part of that is about creating the structures for Ministers, then, to go on and make decisions around exemptions, discounts, premiums and…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes. But just to be clear that, you know, the service will be there, it's not limited by the funding.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes. That is a risk, definitely.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
So, the work there was led by other colleagues, but as a result of that, we do know that—you mentioned lack of awareness, that's a particular concern, so—. And people have assumptions about what's available and perhaps what is actually available might be…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes, so our budget continues to be informed by the work that we did through the gender budgeting pilot. So, the next step, really, will be for us to use the learning from that to inform the review of the strategic integrated impact assessment that we…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
So, shall I ask the health Minister to provide a fuller note? I know that the integrated care fund is actually an example where health and local government working together has been successful, but the funding model there is different. But, on the pooled…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes. So, at the moment, around a third of people pay nothing, a third pay something up to the cap, and then a third will pay the cap. So, yes, that's something that we're exploring at the moment.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
So, now, we have to look afresh—. Well, not afresh. Now we need to build on the work that we’ve been doing in that space. Those are discussions that I’m having with the health Minister. But, in the immediate term, it’s really about looking at the cap for…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
And it almost did in the sense that the UK Government made announcements around national insurance contributions that were then going to go into a health and care fund. So, we thought, ‘Great, the UK Government has taken a decision now and that’s the funding…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes, rather than how you raise the finance and distribute it, actually what does the citizen get for that additional money—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
I know that you were very active in terms of shaping that early work as well. We did make a lot of progress in terms of considering the distributional elements of it, and also the offer. That was, I think, the most challenging bit of it actually—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
As you say, we did a lot of work in that space, and I think you’re underplaying your own role in developing some of that as well—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
Yes, but thinking about some of those bold things, there's the fact that we’ve provided significant funding for the basic income pilot. You can barely think of anything more preventative than that when you’re thinking about the cohort of young people involved…
