Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 18 September 2019.
Thank you for raising this issue. I think it's important that the thresholds that we have here in Wales reflect the Welsh tax base. Our scheme reflects the fact that rateable values here in Wales—the average rateable value—is much lower than across the border in England. I think in Wales we're looking at average rateable values of £33,000, whereas over in England I think we're looking at in excess of £50,000. So, it is important that our schemes here in Wales reflect the different situation that we have here in Wales. But that said, we are doing some work that looks at the potential reforming of business rates in the future. We're also looking in parallel at potential reforms to council tax in future. So, we're looking at both of our local taxes to see how we can potentially improve them for the future. We're expecting a mid-term report on the work in terms of non-domestic rates around October and I'd be happy to provide some kind of outline as to what the early findings of that are.FootnoteLink I had a good discussion this morning with the Welsh Retail Consortium. They're really interested in that piece of work, and I'm keen to engage their expertise in terms of getting an understanding from them if they feel that the research is taking us in the right direction. But everything I do in terms of tax, non-domestic rates—as we look to reform and change things, I want to do it collaboratively and in an open and transparent way, so I'd be happy to discuss things further.