Rebecca Evans: Diolch. This supplementary budget presents the Welsh Government's final spending plans for the current financial year. It increases the overall Welsh resources by over £1.1 billion, a further 4.4 per cent increase on the position set out in the first supplementary budget published in June 2021. In this budget, our fiscal spending plans have increased by a total of £2.409 billion. Over 150...
Rebecca Evans: So, as I said in response to the previous speaker, we have undertaken our own piece of research that didn't point to the need for a legislative solution. But we are looking with interest at the IWA report as well as the work that the Wales Co-operative Centre has undertaken, on 'Community ownership of land and assets: enabling the delivery of community-led housing in Wales', which was also...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising this question. Obviously, I would associate myself with what the First Minister said in response to the issue yesterday. We have looked at the situation in England and I know that when the registers were introduced, there was actually quite a mixed response to the scheme when it was introduced in England. And our recently published Welsh Government community asset...
Rebecca Evans: Yes. Community assets such as green spaces and community buildings are vital to the health and well-being of our communities. We support the community ownership of these assets, which is why we are working with partners to deliver the recommendations from our research into community asset transfers.
Rebecca Evans: I hope the Member sees some of the irony there in the way in which the Conservatives have opposed our efforts to take action on the second homes situation, when, as the Member says, people are struggling just to buy one, and, for many, it will always be unattainable. So, this is one the reasons why we are taking action on the second homes issue. But, in respect of our starting rate for land...
Rebecca Evans: We're currently consulting on possible local variation of land transaction tax rates for second homes, and that consultation closes on 28 March.
Rebecca Evans: So, in my response to Huw Irranca-Davies, I set out some of the ways in which we've been pressing UK Government to use the levers at its disposal to help families and households here in Wales. But the UK Government does have a real opportunity now on 23 March, when it will be bringing forward its next fiscal statement, and that's a chance, I think, for the UK Government to set out some really...
Rebecca Evans: I do think it is imperative for all Governments in the UK to be working together to solve these issues, and we have excellent meetings with colleagues in Northern Ireland and in Scotland who share many of our concerns about the way in which the UK Government is responding to the cost-of-living crisis in particular, and we've come up with ideas of simple things the UK Government could be doing...
Rebecca Evans: I have raised the cost-of-living crisis with the UK Treasury on a number of occasions. Despite the difficult position we have been presented with, due to the UK Government support not going far enough, the Welsh Government will continue to assist people across Wales throughout the crisis.
Rebecca Evans: Yes. We do evaluate the projects that are funded through the scheme, and that helps us understand where we go in future. Of course, not every scheme is a great success; that's part, I suppose, of the point of these kinds of projects, that we test out what works, and we've had some that in the past that have less successful but part of the challenge then is about learning why it didn't succeed...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, as Mike Hedges says, he has long been a champion of invest-to-save and also innovate-to-save, and has been actually very challenging in terms of how are we demonstrating that this good practice travels. So, as a result of that, we did commission Cardiff University to undertake a piece of research for us so that we could really understand the experiences of those schemes. There were some...
Rebecca Evans: The criteria of spend for flood-risk schemes is slightly outside my area of responsibility and expertise, so I'd better ask my colleague to write to Janet Finch-Saunders so that she gets an accurate answer.
Rebecca Evans: Yes. The invest-to-save scheme budget over the next three years stands at £7 million. This budget is a result of repayments being made in respect of previous investments. So, the budget from 2022-23 to 2024-25 is approximately £25 million, which includes £4 million capital.
Rebecca Evans: Yes, thank you for raising this, and, of course, as a result of the co-operation agreement that we do have with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Government is investing an additional £24 million revenue over the next three years and a total of £102 million capital up to 2024-25 to help fulfil our programme for government commitments in respect of flood defences. And, of course, this work includes...
Rebecca Evans: Welsh Government has an emergency financial assistance scheme to provide special financial assistance to local authorities affected by serious emergencies like flooding. We have not yet received any requests to open the scheme following the recent storms.
Rebecca Evans: Well, I'm slightly in a difficult position now, having committed not to comment on individual authorities' decisions, but the Member does make an excellent point.
Rebecca Evans: Well, Natasha Asghar will be very pleased to hear that we've more than met what the UK Government has provided to its council tax payers in England, and gone much further by being able to provide a package of support that is worth almost double what's available across the border in England. So, yes, authorities will—sorry, households will—receive the £150 payment in all households in...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for the question, and I'll just repeat again, really, that authorities have to strike that balance between maintaining services and considering the pressure on households, without being drawn into commenting on any particular authority's decisions, because these are decisions for local authorities to take, and it's not really for Welsh Government to dictate what those might be. Of...
Rebecca Evans: The setting of council tax levels remains the responsibility of each local authority, taking account of all the sources of funding available and local priorities for service delivery. Authorities must strike a balance between maintaining services and the financial pressures on households.
Rebecca Evans: This is absolutely something that is part of the approach to the agriculture Bill, and it's one of the things that I know the Minister for rural affairs has also been discussing with Peter Fox in respect of his proposals for a Bill, which would seek to ensure that we procure more food locally. I think this is one area where we do have some good practice emerging in the work that's being led...
