I welcome the opportunity to start engaging in this debate today, and I welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s opportunity to start thinking. It’s not so much of an opportunity for thinking, but thinking aloud, which I intend to do.

Any proposal to introduce a new tax in Wales will be assessed against a range of criteria, including the extent to which a tax affects UK macroeconomic or fiscal policies or the single market—well, that will only last for the next two years, perhaps, depending on whether we’re in the single market or not—may be non-compliant with the European Union for the next two—that, again, only lasts for the next two years, and an awful lot of these rules, such as the Azores judgment, et cetera, will themselves no longer apply to us. Increased tax avoidance risks—I think the border is always something we need to give serious thought to. Creates an additional compliance burden for business or individuals—almost any tax is bound to bring additional burdens, because somebody will have to do something—and is aligned with devolved responsibilities. I think also the key, perhaps more than that, is: is a tax fair or perceived to be fair by the public? The general view on tax, certainly by those of us on the political left, is the richer you are, the more you should pay. Taxes that protect health and the environment get a favourable response, but the public need to be involved. This is us starting off the debate, but it’s a debate where 3 million other people may well have a view, and should be engaged in having that view.

Taxes that I’m suggesting to be considered include those suggested by other people and those looked at by other legislatures. It’s neither a definitive list nor a shopping list. What it is is some thoughts on what could be considered in the future. None are fully thought through, and, again, many have been suggested by others, both here and in other places. Taxes not considered are those that would generate cross-border movement at the extreme end, e.g. an additional tax on alcohol that would lead to booze cruises to Chester, Shrewsbury and Bristol.

I have broken the taxes to be considered into four different types of taxes: environmental, health, additional tax on items currently taxed, and new taxes to raise money to support public services. Taxes pay for public services. I think perhaps sometimes people talk about cutting taxes and doing all these things with taxes—if we don’t have the taxes in we can’t have the public services we all want. Far too often, people seem to think we can have North American-style taxes, and Scandinavian-style public services. That’s not feasible.

There are effectively two types of taxes: new, and supplements on current taxes. Environment taxes I want to throw out for consideration, many have come out before—. Plastic bottles—charge per bottle to pay for its collection and disposal. Also, this may lead to the return of glass as opposed to plastic bottles, which are obviously reusable and some of us are old enough to remember Corona bottles and getting 5p and 10p back on them. A polystyrene tax, to reduce use of these trays, and also a chewing gum tax to pay for its removal from a whole range of places, including people’s clothes, when it’s been attached to the bottom of desks.

Health taxes: sugary drinks and food—. I know it’s been raised before by others here and elsewhere, but it’s still worth considering. Should it be a tax on all sugar, or should it be a tax on added sugar? Salt—a tax on salt in food, either charged above a certain amount, or charged per percentage of the product that is salt. Fat—a charge on the percentage of the product containing fat, or a fat supplement above a certain percentage of fat in a product.

How about supplementary taxes? Diesel—produce a supplementary charge on diesel. We know the damage diesel does to the environment. Supermarkets and large stores above a certain size—a rates supplement. Add higher council tax bands, so that more is raised on the very large and expensive properties—and I would urge the Cabinet Secretary to give serious consideration to that, because he can actually do that without any need to go through the long process he described earlier.

Car parking spaces—charging for the car park area and the number of parking spaces associated with a retail outlet. Development land tax—a tax on the land that has been given permission for development or is in a local development plan for development. It gets taxed a certain number of years after permission has been given, even if developers have not started, and subsequently for another period of time if development is not finished. This would make a charge on land banking—[Interruption.] Sorry, Nick.