Broadly speaking, I welcome what the Finance Secretary is doing in these regulations. I support the devolution of taxes to Wales because I see it as one way in which we can make Wales more competitive and attractive for people to come and live and work here. If the taxes are used in a sensible way, then they can help to boost the size of the Welsh economy and the tax base that that brings about.

When we look at the rates and bands that the Finance Secretary has chosen, broadly speaking, I think this is an improvement. Ninety per cent of people will either pay the same or less under the Welsh rates and bands compared with what they would do under the UK bands, which is a very good thing. But stamp duties themselves on property are a very bad tax, generally speaking, because, fundamentally, it's a tax upon moving house. It reduces labour mobility and it ends up with, particularly older people, in effect, being imprisoned in their own houses because they don't want to pay the costs of moving, which is a bad thing because we need more houses and we need to occupy the properties that we have more intensively. The evidence from England is that stamp duty rates at their current levels will probably reduce people moving around by as much as a third. Of course, Welsh property prices are far less than in England, so it may be that this competitive advantage will disguise some of these features. We're expecting a bit of a property boom in south-east Wales as a result of the abolition of tolls on the Severn bridge. Property here, on this side of the Severn, is, of course, a lot less than on the other side. So, it probably will produce a windfall for the Welsh Treasury, and I therefore fully understand why the Finance Secretary has introduced the higher rate bands. But, broadly speaking, I'm in favour of taxes that are lower than in England in Wales, both in absolute terms as well as in relative terms.

It's a pity, I think, that the stamp duty rates at these high levels are likely to act as an inhibitor of the economy in future. It may be to a very small extent, because we don't have that many properties in the very high levels of these bands. The average house price in Wales is, I believe, £150,000, and, for the average buyer, they'll be paying £500 less, I believe, under these rates, than they would have been otherwise. So, that is a good thing. But I would make a plea for the future that, where we do have devolved taxes, we should use them as levers of improvements in the economy to encourage people to come to Wales, because it is the poorest part of the United Kingdom and we need every bit of assistance that we can from the tax system to try to correct the problems that have been inherited from the past.

I should say that, although we have called for a division on this, that is only so that we can abstain, so that—. Because I'm in favour of the reductions in the imposition, but we're against the increases. But we don't see, on balance, that this is a bad thing and, therefore, we're going to abstain rather than vote against the motions.