Thank you, Llywydd. This introduces a new subsection to section 24 relating to tax rates and bands, and the impact would be to allow local authorities to make representations and innovative proposals on land transaction bands and rates to be considered by the Welsh Government. The Bill provides a golden opportunity for us to actually implement the tax in relation to the policy objectives of the Government, but also in relation to the various requirements of the various communities of Wales.

There’s a major opportunity here for the Government and local authorities. The intention of our amendment, therefore, is to ensure that local authorities can look at the possibilities of this Bill and make representations to the Welsh Government in the hope of realising such possibilities. For example, it’s possible that a local authority may identify a need to vary the highest rate on additional residential properties within specific residential areas. It’s reasonable, therefore, that a local authority should make representations to the Welsh Government on that kind of variation to the tax, and this amendment safeguards the ability to do that in future and to do so formally, of course. I hope that there will be an appreciation across the Chamber that what we’re doing here is trying to be creative and to see whether there are ways and means of using our new fiscal powers—minor powers as they are at present—in order to implement the broader policy objectives. We on these benches will be interested to hear the response of the Cabinet Secretary.