Rebecca Evans: He finally got to a question in the very last sentence. No, this isn't the time to ditch this idea. This is the time to launch a consultation to engage widely and to take as many views as we possibly can on the idea that has come forward. This goes back, of course, to the Holtham work, which suggested that this might be a particular tax area that would be a good fit for Wales. It came forward...
Rebecca Evans: Today, I'm pleased to announce the launch of a public consultation on enabling local authorities to raise a visitor levy. The proposals set out in the consultation have been developed with Plaid Cymru as part of the co-operation agreement. Our collective ambition is to grow tourism for the good of Wales with economic growth, environmental sustainability and social and cultural well-being at...
Rebecca Evans: Our fiscal position is very difficult. We face several uncertainties as a result of the ongoing events in Whitehall. We are yet to understand when the next UK Government fiscal event will be, and the UK Government hasn't, at this point, indicated that there will be any additional funding coming to Wales, and we absolutely cannot rely on any assumption that there will be additional funding....
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I'd just like to say thank you to everybody for their contributions this afternoon, but particularly so to the Finance Committee for bringing forward the debate today. I do think that this has been an absolutely excellent innovation in recent years, and it really does help focus the mind in terms of understanding what the priorities of colleagues are. So, thank you so much for...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. As a number of colleagues have observed this afternoon, this supplementary budget really does take us back to what we used to know supplementary budgets as being before the pandemic, in the sense that there are very small movements, small allocations, and it's mostly technical in nature. So, much of what we've heard this afternoon and much of what I'll respond to doesn't relate...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Llywydd. The first supplementary budget of 2022-23 is the first opportunity to amend budgetary plans for the current financial year, which were published and approved by the Senedd in March. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Finance Committee for its consideration of this budget and publication of its report. I'll provide a detailed response to its 12 recommendations...
Rebecca Evans: I was coming on to that.
Rebecca Evans: I've clearly changed my mind, when you look at the ways in which the Bill has been dramatically amended. And the idea behind the Bill has been amended from a very wide-ranging power when we first consulted to something that is very narrow and targeted now. But the point I was going on to make is that I do recognise what you said about the way in which you responded to the evidence you've...
Rebecca Evans: Yes.
Rebecca Evans: I absolutely give that commitment to collaborate with the experts in the field. If colleagues don't want to listen to me today, let's listen to the experts in the field, because when my colleague Rhianon Passmore was asking the Chartered Institute of Taxation in committee if it would be an appropriate mechanism to use secondary legislation, they responded, I think, in the...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much, and thank you to colleagues for their contributions this afternoon. I'm glad it's been recognised that the Bill is the result of a considerable body of work by many people, and I would like to put my thanks on record to all of them, and I'm sure that the collaborative way of working that I've tried to adopt has helped to strengthen the existing relationships, which I hope...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. Today, I'm pleased to present the Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill to the Senedd for approval. I'd like to begin by putting on record my thanks to all the officials who've worked so diligently over many years on this Bill. As we know, tax is an important and growing area of the devolution settlement. As a Welsh Government, we need, like every executive, a...
Rebecca Evans: Only to say thank you very much to the Welsh Conservatives for their support today. I'm grateful to Members for their interest in this. As this is the final substantive tranche of legislation to establish the legal framework for CJCs, I just want to recognise all the work that's gone in by officials in getting us to this point, and also to the stakeholders who have helped us so greatly on the...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion. The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2022, along with a handful of minor ancillary statutory instruments that will be laid shortly, represent the final substantive tranche of legislation to establish the legal framework for CJCs. I'm grateful to Members for their consideration of these regulations and the previous three...
Rebecca Evans: I'm grateful for that contribution, and just want to reassure Carolyn Thomas that we are very much continuing to work on the idea of a local land value tax. The main underlying objective for local tax is to raise that stable revenue for local services in the fairest possible way. And where we can have other advantages, such as the better use of land, I think we should definitely be looking to...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Mike Hedges for those contributions and for his ongoing engagement on the issue of council tax, and I share his concern about the importance of more regular revaluations. I think that it has been far too long since the last revaluation. Painful though I understand them to be, I think it is more important that we do it more regularly, and then the changes won't be so...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Llyr Gruffydd for his comments today, and just through Llyr I'd like to thank Cefin Campbell for the excellent work, which we've done, I think, together, on this particular area of our co-operation agreement, and for his really constructive approach and the ideas and challenge that he's brought to the work so far. I know there's a lot more for us to be doing on this,...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Sam Rowlands for his contribution this afternoon, and his keenness to work collaboratively on what is such an important agenda in terms of making council tax fairer. I suppose the reason why we've referred to our consultation as making council tax fairer, rather than council tax reform in itself, is because 'fairer' is the outcome that we want from this, and the 'reform',...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. Our programme for government and co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru commit to making reforms to council tax to make it fairer and more progressive. In December, I announced that I would be consulting this year on an ambitious package of reforms as the starting point on a journey towards meeting those aims. Our published work last year concluded that to meet those aims in the...
Rebecca Evans: Okay, I'll try to conclude. I'll also be issuing that revised guidance that we've heard of in relation to the additional options that are available if self-catering properties restricted by planning permission conditions don't meet those thresholds. These options do include discretion to reduce or even remove the standard rate of council tax liability for certain properties where considered...
