8. 7. Debate: Considering the Case for New Taxes in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:13 pm on 4 July 2017.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:13, 4 July 2017

Well, Llywydd, the route that I am proposing this afternoon is that we begin the debate here today; that we collect ideas further over the summer; that in the autumn I will test those ideas against the criteria set out in our tax policy statement published last month; and then that we propose a shortlist from that longer list of ideas, on which we will then carry out more detailed work over the months that follow. At the same time, it would be my intention to alert the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to that work and to let her know that, some months later, it will be my intention to have identified a particular candidate that we will use to send around the circuit that has been created. So, it is ambitious. This is not an immediate set of actions that we can embark upon. But, I do think it’s possible within this Assembly term to have identified an idea, to have sent it round that track and, hopefully, to have arrived successfully with a new idea that we can put into practice in Wales. But even if we don’t succeed to that extent, we will have learned a lot from testing the machinery itself.

So, Llywydd, let me conclude by saying that proposing new taxes brings with it a new set of responsibilities. The Government will support the two amendments from the Conservative Party this afternoon, and I'm happy to reaffirm that I'm not intending to use powers simply because we have those powers, but saying I'm not in favour of change for change’s sake is not the same thing as saying that there cannot be a case for change, and that's the proposition we are testing in this debate. We will use the criteria set out in the tax policy framework. We will identify a candidate tax to test the new machinery, and in doing so, I think we will add to the repertoire of policies that are available to Wales in this new area of responsibility.