Rebecca Evans: We're absolutely committed to taking forward the recommendations from the review of the strategic partnerships, which was agreed by the partnership council for Wales. We are of the view, though, that any changes should be locally led and locally driven. We've seen a good example of that, I think, through the way in which the public services boards in Gwent have operated in terms of coming...
Rebecca Evans: Devolution of the income tax thresholds would introduce opportunities and risks, and we would want to consider this as part of our wider strategy for devolved taxes. We need the UK Government to engage with us to review the process for securing the devolution of further tax powers to Wales.
Rebecca Evans: I was pleased to see the Member at our tax conference, which took place last week. I hope that he enjoyed it as much as I did. I think one of the really interesting sessions was with representatives from Scotland and Northern Ireland, where they considered the different risks and opportunities of the different fiscal frameworks that we have. The devolution of the thresholds would allow us to...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I welcome the motion today and would like to thank the Finance Committee for its work and for the report on post-EU funding arrangements, but also to all of those Welsh partners who have engaged so strongly with the inquiry as well and provided such clear evidence. It really is a timely and important contribution to the debate on what is a critical issue, as the UK Government's...
Rebecca Evans: Existing and new EU funding programmes overlap by two years, and the Welsh Government was ready to start a post-EU investment programme almost two years ago, in January 2021, and, by that point, we'd already done a huge amount of intensive work with the OECD and with our Welsh partners to create the strongest possible model for Wales. And it's still completely unacceptable that the UK...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. I move the motion to approve the Non-Domestic Rating (Persons Required to Supply Information and Service of Notices) (Wales) Regulations 2022. The regulations define third parties that may be required by local authorities to supply information about a non-domestic property and the way in which a related notice may be served. This will assist local authorities in carrying out their...
Rebecca Evans: Happy to move to the vote.
Rebecca Evans: I'm pleased to make a statement on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2023-24, which has been laid this afternoon. This is a draft budget unlike any other that we've laid since the start of devolution. It's been one of the toughest that we've ever made, reflecting the perfect storm of economic and budgetary pressures faced in Wales, none of which are of our making. A decade of austerity...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd, and thank you to all colleagues for what I think has been a really constructive set of comments and representations this afternoon. And I know that, once colleagues have had the chance to digest the full suite of budget information, there will inevitably be lots more questions and comments, so I'm more than happy to continue that dialogue as we move forward towards the...
Rebecca Evans: One of the things that I am disappointed not to be able to do is make further significant capital allocations. That was a matter of deep regret, that there was no further capital as a result of the autumn statement. Our capital budget will be 8.1 per cent lower in 2024-25 than in the current year. And, of course, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the London School of...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion to approve the Non-Domestic Rating (Chargeable Amounts) (Wales) Regulations 2022. The regulations provide transitional relief to ratepayers with increased liabilities as a result of the non-domestic rating revaluation taking effect on 1 April 2023. Relief will be provided in a similar way to the scheme we applied following the 2017 revaluation, but with...
Rebecca Evans: I'd just like to thank the Chair very much for those comments, and also thank the Chair and the committee for looking so quickly at the regulations and dealing with them so speedily. I'm grateful to him for his recognition of the particular context within which these regulations were laid. Thank you.
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. As elected representatives, we're in a privileged position. We're trusted to do our very best for the people that we serve. And whilst I'm talking about local government today, the issues apply to all parts of our democracy. The decisions that our councillors make have real-life impacts on our communities across Wales. Our communities are made up of people who are...
Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Sam Rowlands for those questions and comments. I absolutely associate myself with his initial opening remarks, which were around recognising and applauding the efforts of people who do serve every day in our communities as community councillors, town councillors, and as county councillors as well. We're very grateful for all of their work.
Rebecca Evans: I think that we did make good progress through the local government and elections Act in terms of flexibility. That did remove some of those barriers by introducing the ability to have those hybrid meetings, which we know have been really important for people who do have caring responsibilities, family responsibilities, employment commitments that mean that the times at which they're...
Rebecca Evans: I’m very grateful for those comments and again, starting off with our appreciation for people who do put themselves forward to these roles, I think one of the interesting things from the councillor survey was that a large proportion of those respondents said that they’d decided to put themselves forward as councillors in the first place to improve their community and to make it a better...
Rebecca Evans: I will.
Rebecca Evans: I'm really grateful for those questions. In terms of cabinets, I think that one of the really important things that we delivered through the local government and elections Act was the removal of the barriers for job sharing arrangements within the executives of principal councils. So, that has enabled people who wouldn't otherwise have been able to undertake those executive roles to be able...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions and the important point about women's representation in local government. We are absolutely far from where we should be in terms of the number of women who are taking on the role of councillors, but also council leaders. We have very, very few women council leaders in Wales, and that's something that we would want to see increased in future as well. I...
Rebecca Evans: I'm really grateful for those points. I just want to recognise the amazing work that our youth councils do across Wales and just reflect on some discussions I had recently with One Voice Wales about the potential role for youth town and community councils; we have some already starting to pop up across Wales. What I was told is that, as well as engaging young people with the local issues, it...
