6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Land transaction tax on commercial land

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:35 pm on 9 May 2018.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 5:35, 9 May 2018

I think the point I was making was the land. The land price will not increase. The money people will pay for the land will not increase. What will happen to that share of that market price is that more of it will go into taxation, and less of it will go into large profits for the owner. I think that's the difference. I believe that people shouldn't have this bit of serendipity or, 'I'm very lucky, I've got this bit of land, it's worth £1 million, if nobody collects tax on it, I get £1 million in my back pocket.' I think that we should get higher taxation on it, and I agree entirely with what the Cabinet Secretary has done.

If land transaction tax above £1 million is reduced—from listening to others earlier, they'd abolish it altogether—who pays to make up this shortfall? Do we wish to raise it from those—? [Interruption.] Or do the Welsh Conservatives want to reduce public expenditure? I congratulate the finance Minister and Government on making land transaction tax more progressive. You don't know what people—. The rate is a very minor part when land is exchanged; it's who wants to buy it, why they want to buy it and what's available. With planning permission on 10 acres of land in the Vale of Glamorgan, it wouldn't matter if you were paying 50 or 100 per cent taxation, people would want to sell it and people would want to buy it.