Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 12:01 pm on 8 July 2020.
Thank you, First Minister. Apologies for the rather dry phrasing of the question, but you got my drift. First Minister, as you say, the UK Government has just signed off the draw-down of the £857 million and the Welsh Government budget has been significantly uplifted since the start of the pandemic, and rightly so. As the focus now turns to leaving lockdown and getting the economy moving again, will you look at providing support for the housing market and particularly first-time buyers? It's likely in the statement today that the Chancellor will be announcing a possible stamp duty holiday—certainly stamp duty relief for buyers. Is that something you will be considering here? My colleague Laura Anne Jones in her question earlier spoke about possible distortions along the border with regard to COVID-19 processes. There would be no greater distortion than that to the housing market if there's greater relief provided for stamp duty in England than there is for land transaction tax here in Wales, so will you pledge to look at this?