Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 20 June 2018.
Can I thank Mandy Jones for that supplementary question? Because I completely agree with what she has said. I am glad to see the number of local authorities in Wales rising that provide a blanket exemption to care leavers from paying the council tax. I know that Carl Sargeant, when he was responsible for this area, wrote to all local authorities, encouraging them to join that list. It's a message that the current local government Secretary and I continue to give to local authority colleagues, and those who have tell you that the costs to them are very modest indeed, because, sadly, so many care leavers qualify for help with council tax in other ways from schemes that we already have in being. But to have a solid scheme universally available, where care leavers could be guaranteed to be provided with that help—that's the position we'd like to get to as a Welsh Government, and we will continue, as she has suggested, to work with colleagues in local authorities to get all 22 into that position.