Mark Reckless: Well, we don't have the numbers from the tax authorities yet—at least not reliable ones—because the transactions can come in later. So, we have a survey on a consistent basis, and I think that gives useful information. In the previous quarter, in the last quarter before this happened, I think we had about £390 million of transactions, as people rushed to get their transactions through...
Mark Reckless: Could I firstly apologise to colleagues for arriving late to the debate, and particularly to my colleague, Nick Ramsay, whose introductions are often as rousing as his perorations? So, I'm sorry to have missed that. I did hear Neil Hamilton's speech just now. I'd previously been aware that he was a lawyer, but I hadn't realised that he was a tax avoidance specialist until he revealed that...
Mark Reckless: I'm grateful to the Member for giving way—I hunch my shoulders, but thank you. I wonder, might it be that we're saying to them that by having lower rates and perhaps encouraging more people to come and live and pay tax in Wales that there might be more revenue to support their services?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: He says it's piecemeal and gives one example, but I think another example was inferred just now in that insurance companies—our older people will just rely on competition. You can't have an insurance company discriminate on the basis of gender. Why should they be able to do it on the basis of age?
Mark Reckless: I welcome the Minister to her post. I'm pleased to be able to start by congratulating Welsh Government on what strikes me as a really positive and on the face of it quite generous terms to this initiative. I just wonder, the press release said that loans would be 'repayment free' until the new home was complete and mortgaged, it then says: 'approved applicants can reserve a plot by providing...
Mark Reckless: I'm pleased to report in that context that, last week, I wrote to the Minister following a meeting I had with an Omani businessman, who is interested in importing Welsh beef and lamb to Oman. As we're looking to diversify our exporting markets, does the Minister welcome this, and will she arrange for whoever is appropriate to meet with them, to facilitate this mutually beneficial trade?
Mark Reckless: 2. Will the Minister make a statement on what progress Hybu Cig Cymru have made in developing markets for Welsh red meat beyond the EU? OAQ53244
Mark Reckless: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on the Self-Build Wales programme? OAQ53243
Mark Reckless: May I ask the organiser for two statements? The first is in respect of the possibly tragic news regarding the 28-year-old Argentine striker, Emiliano Sala, who was in Wales on Saturday to announce his record signing for Cardiff City. After returning to Nantes, where he was previously playing, it has been confirmed that he was on a plane travelling from Nantes to Cardiff yesterday evening,...
Mark Reckless: The First Minister didn't mention one major commitment from the Labour manifesto, and I quote: 'We will deliver a relief road for the M4'. When I asked the First Minister last week to make a statement on whether Welsh Government policy on the M4 relief road has changed since he took office, he made no mention of the relief road in his response, instead just saying, 'No change has taken...
Mark Reckless: 4. Will the First Minister make a statement on how the Welsh Government plans to relieve traffic congestion around Newport? OAQ53269
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way? Will the Member give way? He says 'whatever the outcome' of this. The outcome was that Wales voted to leave the European Union. The problem is that people such as himself do not want to implement that result and are doing everything possible to frustrate it. By saying, 'We have to leave whatever; we won't accept "no deal"', you have to accept whatever they give you....
Mark Reckless: The Welsh Government launched its Brexit website for business in September 2018, and you said in your statement yesterday you hoped to have a further portal up and running within a few days. The Irish Government launched its prepareforbrexit.com website in June 2016, within a week of the referendum, and has been offering grants of up to €5,000 to help SMEs prepare for Brexit since the first...
Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister make a statement on whether Welsh Government policy on the M4 relief road has changed since he took office?
Mark Reckless: May I congratulate the Member? But I just wanted to ask him: with higher house prices in our region, is that a way of getting some more of the development into north of the Caerphilly borough and, likewise, in Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil councils where, sometimes, we've only seen 50 houses started in a year?
Mark Reckless: I will, yes.
Mark Reckless: Well, I thought I was in some agreement with the Member on this, and in particular, the Caerphilly LDP and going and ripping that up and looking to start again, and some of the proposals for building on Caerphilly mountain and how those would be dependent on car use and the need to link up with what was happening in the Cardiff LDP. I thought that was all sensible and I thought that there was...
Mark Reckless: It's a pleasure to follow Mike Hedges, and I think most of the points he's made about council housing and the importance of building for social rent are well made. I would, however, emphasise that, whatever the exact target we have—and, in our motion, we call for, I think, 10,000 houses a year; the Government has a different target and perhaps different proportions, but, in all those, it's...
Mark Reckless: What proportion of the staff at the hospital would the Minister expect to want to live in Cwmbran and the locality of the hospital? Does he consider that sufficient housing is being built locally to satisfy that demand?
