, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'm grateful for the question and I'll certainly discuss the specific case that you raise with the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, but pedestrian safety and Safe Routes in Communities schemes are clearly important to us, as are our active travel schemes…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
My priorities are set out in our programme for government and our 2022-23 budget; preparations for the 2023-24 budget are currently under way. Despite the challenging fiscal context, we will ensure our spending priorities have the greatest possible impact for…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Llywydd, I'll ask my colleague, the Minister with responsibility for childcare and the provision of childcare, to perhaps provide a written answer to that, because those are not discussions I've had directly with the Minister, and I think that would be a…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Yes. The provision of adequate childcare support is one of our key policies to support families. The most recent final budget included increases of £100 million to cover the capital and revenue programmes for both childcare and Flying Start for the current…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, we consider all of our tax levers at all points across the rates and bands that we're able to set in Welsh rates of income tax, land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax, whilst also looking at the local taxes that we have here in Wales as well…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Llyr Gruffydd is right that I didn't answer his question yesterday, and I realised it immediately after I finished speaking. But I was pleased to be able to answer the same question, which was raised by his colleague the Chair of the Finance Committee during…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, on the issue of non-domestic rates, I'm pleased that the consultation that we recently published has been warmly welcomed, and I'm looking forward to reading the responses to that consultation. In regard to what we might be planning now for our budget…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, just to, I suppose, finish the picture on the last question, because you did mention free ports, I should have added as well that any discussions and any agreement that we might come to, of course, would be in the same vein as our approach to free…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, we are very sceptical about the benefits that investment zones could bring, precisely because we disagree with your analysis in the sense that we believe that investment zones do have the propensity to draw investment away from some areas, and so…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, I was wondering where to even start with that contribution, because we know that the methodology alone results in the fact that Wales will receive £1 billion less in replacement funding from the United Kingdom as compared to what we would have had from…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I'd be more than happy to continue to make these arguments in regard to both the levelling-up fund and the shared prosperity fund to the UK Government. We do have our next meeting of the inter-ministerial standing committee, which is what the quadrilaterals…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
The UK Government has bypassed the Welsh Government and the Senedd on this fund, which fails to address persistent regional inequalities across the UK. I have repeatedly raised with a succession of Chancellors and Treasury Ministers the disruption and the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Huw Irranca-Davies is entirely right that reform is long overdue. It's something that the IFS also noted in its report. It said that council tax is out of date, regressive and distortionary, and we recognise all of that. The IFS did recognise that we are the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I do recognise as well that this is an important area of joint working between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government. I'm very grateful to Cefin Campbell in particular for the work that he's done in helping shape the ideas for a council tax that will rebalance…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
The first thing to say about our proposals in respect of the reform of council tax is that they are not going to happen immediately or require a revaluation of all of our properties across Wales in order to give us the building blocks for the revaluation. We…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Through our established partnership arrangements, I've involved local government at every stage in developing plans to create a fairer council tax. I met with all 22 leaders in June, ahead of launching our phase 1 consultation, and I will convene regular…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
I've finished now, Dirprwy Lywydd.
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Well, you get the impression from the tone of the contribution that the Member doesn't much like Welsh people and their efforts here in Wales. No, I'm sorry, I don't recognise what the Member is saying. We're talking here about a budget that is just so…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
So, we've got a really well tried-and-tested approach to Welsh rates of income tax, so, it's normal practice for us to announce those rates alongside the final budget debate. And, obviously, we will be having discussions with colleagues ahead of that, because…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
I agree that it is absolutely a punitive budget from the UK Government, and it speaks volumes that only the Conservative spokesperson this afternoon has got up to defend the Conservative budget this week. I'd be very interested to see what the other…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Yes, Deputy Presiding Officer, I would.
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Again, I agree with everything that Alun Davies has said about this being a budget for the very richest, which will benefit very, very few people here in Wales. It is absolutely an extraordinary economic failure, and I agree that it is another approach by the…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
I would absolutely recognise everything that Mike Hedges has said in terms of the economic impact of the statement. I think that it’s been well reported now that the view generally is that the Chancellor has just taken a huge gamble on the nation's finances…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
Thank you to the Member for those questions. I can confirm that I have had no direct engagement thus far with the Chancellor. I did have a meeting with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but, unfortunately, it was after the Chancellor had made his…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Response to the UK Government Financial Statement
The opposition spokesperson said that the UK Government hadn't perhaps explained its plans properly and they could have explained it better. Well, the Conservatives will have plenty of time over the autumn and winter to explain themselves and explain their…
