Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for raising those points and for your recognition, right at the start of your contribution, about the important role that gender budgeting can play in helping us address some of these issues, which have been with us for far too long now. I think gender budgeting will provide us with an important tool in terms of advancing equality here in Wales. There were some specific...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those points and questions, and I share that desire to move very swiftly on this. In the immediate term, we've got four strands of work that we'll be driving forward, and they are cross-cutting across Government to ensure that we make those interlinkages in terms of gender budgeting. So, we've got knowledge and understanding; support and constructive challenge;...
Rebecca Evans: It is absolutely the case that the social care sector does have that higher proportion of female workers, so the investment that we make in the social care sector does have that direct impact on those workers and their future, and of course on the families who they support. And we know that women tend to live longer than men, so we have more older women to be supporting within our communities...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Joyce Watson for raising this. I know that she has been a champion of this for many years, and the Wales Women's Budget Group is still going strong and providing really, really constructive challenge to Government. They are telling us that we need to move more quickly on the work that we're doing and we're listening to them on that to try and ensure that we move as...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. Before I get into the technical detail, I'd like to take the opportunity to put on record, Llywydd, how much I've appreciated the very constructive discussions I've had with opposition Members and Labour backbenchers through Stage 2 and ahead of Stage 3 on changes to the Bill. I have at all times tried to understand and reflect on the points made, and consider carefully what the...
Rebecca Evans: I thank colleagues for their contribution in this particular section and, as we've heard, amendment 1 is a consequential amendment, and I'm grateful for the support for that from Plaid Cymru, and I would hope that we will have support from Conservative colleagues for that particular amendment. Then, I think we had the opportunity at Stage 2 to explore recommendation 6 from the LJC committee...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. Amendment 7, tabled in the name of Peter Fox, as we've heard, sets out that the Welsh Ministers must take appropriate steps to promote public awareness of the changes to the law made by regulations introduced under section 1. The amendment includes a requirement for Welsh Ministers to take steps to make the public aware if regulations made via the made affirmative procedure cease to...
Rebecca Evans: Amendment 8, tabled by Peter Fox, essentially adds a new review point, two years after the Act comes into force. That's in addition to maintaining the existing commitment to review the Act after four years. As we've heard, amendment 9 is consequential to the approval of amendment 8. I've given the timing for the review considerable thought, giving special consideration to how the Bill has...
Rebecca Evans: Amendment 2 tabled in my name is intended to address a concern that was raised at the Stage 2 proceedings. Currently, the power available to the Welsh Ministers to extend the life of the regulation-making power could mean new regulations may be made under that power for up to 10 years from the date of Royal Assent. That could mean that the longer term architecture for making changes to the...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you to colleagues for their contributions. I'm grateful to Llyr Gruffydd's recognition that this amendment 2 is tabled specifically to address the concerns that he raised at Stage 2 of the passing of the Bill, which I think is a pragmatic response to concerns that he and I know other colleagues have raised. So, I've been pleased to table this amendment this afternoon. But I reiterate...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the motion today. On 2 March, more than 12 months before the changes take practical effect, I announced the outcome of our consultation on local taxes for second homes and self-catering accommodation. Since then, I've answered questions from Members in the Chamber and elsewhere, I've responded to an opposition debate on the...
Rebecca Evans: I think that the fair contribution to communities has to be made within the context of sustainable communities, where we have a balance of businesses and a balance of residents there. We know there are communities in Wales where 40 per cent of properties are second homes, sometimes being let out as holiday lets. And we know that for large parts of the year, in some areas, the lights will be...
Rebecca Evans: I think that the issue that Mabon ap Gwynfor referred to in his contribution, about striking that balance between those in the more casual end of the sector and those that are established businesses, is important and that work on registration will be important in doing that, so that we can move people towards the more established businesses and support them to have those properties let for a...
Rebecca Evans: Well, as I said, average occupancy has exceeded 50 per cent over the three years prior to the pandemic, so many of those businesses are reaching that threshold, and I've already mentioned the point about the regulation system, which will help push tourists and visitors towards those established businesses and away from the more casual end of the market, which is having an impact, I think, on...
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...
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: 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: 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 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 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...
