Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Taxation, despite being one of the most divisive of topics, is one of the most important economic levers a Government can control. We all agree with the decision to give the Assembly powers over taxation. This has signalled the change from us being a spending institution to one now with responsibility for raising some of the funding we spend on public services.

UKIP believes in a low-tax economy. We would like to see lower taxes on business in order to attract large employers to Wales—a reduction perhaps in corporation tax. Unfortunately, membership of the single market prohibits this. The EU is currently taking action against Ireland for their deal with Apple, and Luxembourg for their deal with Amazon. Following Brexit, we may be able to incentivise Apple or Amazon to locate to a low-tax Wales, provided we leave the single market. We know the Welsh Government is at odds with us on this decision, but we respect everyone’s decision here, and everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

We would also like to see lower income taxes. We spend vastly more per head on health and education than they do in England. Indeed, we spend more per head on all public services. In England, they spend about £8,800 per head. Here in Wales, we spend a little over £10,000 per head—around 10 per cent more than the UK average. However, tax revenues are much lower, at around £7,500 per person, and any proposals to lower income tax in Wales would increase the fiscal deficit and place a greater burden on our English counterparts as well.

So, the Welsh Government would like to introduce a whole raft of new taxes. They are considering introducing a tourism tax, citing that a small levy on tourists has been introduced elsewhere in the world. A tourism tax would be bad for Welsh tourism. In my region alone, I have two main tourist areas. A small levy may not deter tourists, but the bureaucratic and fiscal burden that this would place on our tourism businesses would damage the tourism economy. What proponents of the tourism tax don’t tell you is that the countries that adopt this tax offer reduced VAT rates to the tourism sector, which helps offset the burden of collecting and processing tax.

The Welsh Government’s proposals for a vacant land tax risks undermining the fragile house building sector by making house building more expensive in Wales. We can ill afford the demand for house building in Wales to stall now, at this crucial time, when we need affordable house building to be encouraged to enable our many young people to get a foot on the housing ladder.

Proposals to introduce a disposable plastics tax warrant further consideration, certainly, but it should be UK wide if we are to avoid the packaging industry, which is a large employer in Wales.

The Welsh Government are also proposing to introduce a tax for people to pay for social care, and people are asking what they pay national insurance and tax for, and feel that that this is possibly a duplication of payment.

Of course, there have been even more ideas for new taxes, which can be explored further: a sugar tax, a sunbed tax, a water tax. Wales doesn’t need new taxes; it doesn’t need an increase in the tax burden. What Wales needs is a Welsh Government that can spend the taxes it receives wisely.  We need to encourage economic growth and learn from any past mistakes that have been made, because a mistake is an opportunity, after all, to learn and do it differently next time. As a person who is passionate about my country, I want Wales to reach its full potential, and I look forward to working with any party that wants to see Wales succeed. Diolch yn fawr.