, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, I've had the opportunity to discuss these issues in depth with the local authority leaders very recently. So, as you've heard, we have now fortnightly meetings with local authority leaders. In last week's meeting, actually, one of the substantive items…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you again for that important question. Like you, I was disappointed at the level of uncontested seats. I think that having contested seats and giving local people a choice is a really positive thing, which is why the work that we're doing through our…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I think one of the important things that we have to do as well is to help councillors understand that this kind of behaviour isn't acceptable, because there's often an inclination on the part of elected representatives to think that abuse just comes with the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
First of all, I would just like to say—and I know that Sam Rowlands agrees with me on this—that we have to give respect to anybody who puts themselves forward as a candidate for a community council, town council or county council election, because it does…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, Llywydd, the core revenue funding that we provide to local authorities every year is distributed according to relative need, and that uses a formula that takes into account a wealth of information, including the demographic, physical, economic and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm grateful to John Griffiths for raising this issue, and I do recognise what he says in terms of property prices being higher than average in Monmouthshire, and there obviously are links between job opportunities and higher house prices. But property prices…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I held an introductory meeting with the new leader in August. And I also meet all leaders regularly through our fortnightly meetings at the Welsh Local Government Association executive board and separately on issues such as taxation reform. I have also…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, in the first instance, we're seeking to impress upon the UK Government the importance within HMRC of raising that per-mile payment in respect of travel related to work. So, that's our first way in which we're trying to address this, and I know that my…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I absolutely agree that the approach has to be one of social partnership in terms of addressing the cost-of-living crisis. And this is one of the reasons why the First Minister has set up a cost-of-living Cabinet sub-committee, which I and other Ministers…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Absolutely I can explain that, Llywydd, and it's called 'the pandemic', and that is one of the reasons why local government was provided with significant additional funding through the pandemic. And I have no doubt that local authorities, given the huge gap…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm not sure that's a fair characterisation of local authorities and the way that they look towards their reserves. But, to be perfectly frank, I am glad that local authorities generally are in a much better position than they otherwise would have been, and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
At the spending review, we maximised the use of all of our available funding. I prioritised funding for local government in the Welsh budget so that every authority in Wales received an increase in funding of more than 8.4 per cent.
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates
I know that the UK Government is exploring a range of ways that a digital tax might be introduced, and I know that they'd be keen to hear from colleagues in the Senedd as well, in terms of ideas of how such a thing could be brought in. Because, as I say…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates
Non-domestic rates have been an important part of the local government finance system for more than 30 years, raising more than £1.1 billion annually, and this is not a trivial contribution to the funding required to sustain the local services that we all…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates
Diolch, Llywydd. The Welsh Government is absolutely on the side of Welsh businesses, and we fully recognise the challenges faced by businesses, and other ratepayers under the current economic conditions, and, indeed, the Welsh Government is also exposed to…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Business rates
Formally.
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
Thank you very much for raising that and also giving a really stark picture of the challenges facing local authorities, particularly the ones that you've referred to in north Wales. I've had the opportunity to meet recently with the finance sub-group of the…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
I’m very grateful for those questions. Alun Davies is absolutely right that there are real-life, real-time consequences for people as a result of the UK Government’s decisions and the chaos that has ensued recently, not least, for example, with the mortgage…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
But I think that the broader points are really important in terms of having that wider conversation about the powers that are available to us here in Wales, and what an improved set of powers might look like. I think that that is a discussion that is ongoing…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
I'm very grateful for all of those remarks. I'll just start where we started the last time that we discussed the UK Government's mini-budget, and that is it's my view that it's not the UK that's the problem, it's the UK Government that's the problem, and we…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
Thank you to the Conservative spokesperson for those comments this afternoon, and I agree with him, it's not been a good few weeks, to say the least, and it is certainly disappointing. I think that he's done the best he can there to send a strong message to…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
All this while household budgets have been squeezed even further and a gaping hole has been created in public finances. The new Chancellor may have undone most of the tax-cutting measures brought in on 23 September, which as we know were designed to benefit…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Welsh Government's response to the Chancellor's statement on the medium-term fiscal plan
Diolch, Llywydd. Yesterday, the latest Chancellor reversed many of the flawed and reckless decisions that were made by his predecessor and the Prime Minister in the mini-budget less than a month ago and which were a central pillar of the new Prime Minister's…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Finance and Local Government
Diolch.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes. So, we've got two consultations out at the moment, and through those I think you get a really good idea of what you'll see in a forthcoming local government finance Bill, having considered, of course, the responses to the consultation. So, we've got the…
