New Taxes

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 25 November 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:54, 25 November 2020

I thank Mike Hedges for raising that. Both of these issues are ones that he has raised with me in the past as well. I did explore the first suggestion about adding additional council tax bands, but I'm advised that that couldn't be done properly without a full revaluation exercise of all of our domestic dwellings here in Wales, and that couldn't be achieved before the next Senedd term, so it's not something we could do immediately. And obviously, those changes to council tax bands couldn't really be proposed without some full and substantive consultation with council tax payers, local authorities and others who would be affected.

Revaluation exercises are really significant undertakings and they cost tens of millions of pounds, and I understand that they take around three years to complete, using the current methodology. But, that said, we did commission the independent research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which was published earlier this year, and that does look at what the impact would be of a council tax revaluation, and it could definitely make a more progressive system. So, we'll be drawing together the findings of the research that we've commissioned for both council tax and, actually, non-domestic rates in the new year, and I think it would then be for the next Government to determine the way forward. But it is a very interesting proposal. And, similarly, the suggestion in terms of increasing—I think what's behind Mike's question is suggesting increasing—the number of nights that a property must be let for and advertised for if it's to be classified as a holiday let would also require legislation as well. So, we're going to find it difficult, I think, to undertake any further action that requires legislation, given the pressure on our legislative timetable across the next few months.