Rebecca Evans: Thank you to Russell George for raising what is a really important issue, especially on this particular day. It will be important in the months and years to come that we do have appropriate places around Wales in which to pause and reflect and remember those who've lost loved ones, and also remember those who we've lost during the course of the pandemic. I will ensure that colleagues with...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. There are two changes to tomorrow's agenda. The debate on the Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) (Amendment) Order 2021 has been reduced to five minutes, and the debate on the Welsh Elections (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order 2021 has been withdrawn.
Rebecca Evans: In our discussions when we were developing the budget for 2021-22, we were very clear very early on that health had to remain a priority for the Welsh Government in terms of our investment, and that's why we've provided significant additional funding for the core health budget for the next financial year. Now, clearly there will be opportunities for a future Minister to look at prioritising...
Rebecca Evans: During the pandemic, we've invested an extra £9.9 million to support mental health services. Building on this, we're investing an additional £42 million in mental health next year. This makes our total spending on mental health more than £780 million in 2021-22.
Rebecca Evans: We do this in a number of ways, which are often underpinned by the ministerial sub-committees that we've set up. So, some of them are formal sub-committees of Cabinet and others are committees that are not formally created via Cabinet, but nonetheless operate in an important way. An example would be the work that we're doing on the inter-ministerial group that looks at digital and data—that...
Rebecca Evans: It's the responsibility of all Ministers to take into account a range of factors, including impact assessments and value for money considerations, in setting detailed spending plans. These plans are monitored through the year as part of our in-year reporting process.
Rebecca Evans: We've been making arguments to the UK Government in respect of further flexibilities for the Welsh Government for some time, and I've been really grateful for Rhianon Passmore's support for the work that we've been doing in that area. I know it's something that her colleagues on the Finance Committee are particularly interested in supporting as well. I think that this year has taught us that...
Rebecca Evans: We have taken a series of tax measures to support businesses in Wales during this pandemic. These have included providing NDR relief, freezing the NDR multiplier and raising the threshold at which non-residential property transactions are subject to land transaction tax.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for raising that issue. I think there are several important things there, including our immediate response in terms of non-domestic rates. You'll be aware that I've frozen the multiplier for next year, and that of course gives small businesses a boost. And also, of course, I've provided the 100 per cent rates relief for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses for next year, and...
Rebecca Evans: Between April 2016 and March 2020, £4.2 billion has been collected in non-domestic rates revenue. Over the same period, the Welsh Government has provided £900 million for rates relief schemes. All the revenue from non-domestic rates in Wales is distributed to local authorities to fund local services in Wales.
Rebecca Evans: Yes, I'll definitely be having some further discussions with my colleague the Minister for economy and transport. I can say that, in the next financial year, we've already earmarked £200 million of funding for businesses here in Wales. We're still having some discussions with the UK Government because, in terms of the restart grant, all they've announced thus far is the fact it will be in...
Rebecca Evans: While the additional £735 million revenue is welcome, the majority is time-limited COVID funding and doesn't make up for a decade of austerity. In stark contrast to the £224.5 million capital boost we recently announced, benefiting all parts of Wales including Caerphilly, the UK Government failed to provide any extra capital.
Rebecca Evans: I have absolutely no confidence that the MHCLG department in the UK Government will do a good job of this. I take that view because of the record upon which they stand. The UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has released its report on the towns fund in England and found a lack of transparency and accusations of political bias in the selection process, lack of consistent or transparent...
Rebecca Evans: Last week, ministerial colleagues and I met with the Secretary of State for Wales and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, where they reiterated their intent to run a competitive fund from Westminster, contrary to what was announced in the November spending review.
Rebecca Evans: The Welsh Government put in place some formal evaluation processes, particularly of the non-domestic rates grant support, to ensure that the funding was reaching those businesses that we intended for it to reach, and we've been keen to ensure that we have those monitoring and evaluation points built into our projects. Since the start of the pandemic, businesses in Pembrokeshire have received...
Rebecca Evans: Yes. Our priorities are to provide certainty for our public services, help rebuild a greener economy and to make changes for a fairer, more equal Wales. This includes an increased settlement of £179.4 million for Pembrokeshire County Council and £48.7 million towards a new 11-to-19 secondary school building for Haverfordwest high.
Rebecca Evans: Well, without knowing any more than you've described about the Purple Shoots, I would suggest that a potential avenue to look at would be the Wales flexible investment fund, which is designed to invest and generate new money, including in financial and professional services investment. And that fund has been extended in value to £0.5 billion, with a further injection of £270 million, giving...
Rebecca Evans: Over £14 million has been allocated to 870 businesses within the financial and professional service sectors from the economic resilience fund during 2020-21. We are also investing £270 million in the Development Bank of Wales to support businesses, and will continue to work with all sectors to consider what support is needed into 2021-22.
Rebecca Evans: Well, all of these rates and bands across the Welsh taxes are kept constantly under review. The extension of the LTT reduction is expected to benefit around 4,000 additional homebuyers here in Wales, and up to and including January, around 10,000 homebuyers have already benefited from the temporary reduction that I announced last year. So, a significant number of households have already...
Rebecca Evans: Well, we have a different housing market here in Wales, and we've shown that, actually, in terms of transactions and revenues from land transaction tax, the market is much more buoyant here than it is across the border. The increase in the zero-rate band for those paying the main residential rates to £250,000 from £180,000 will, as I say, come to an end in July. But, even then, we will...
