Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 13 January 2021.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 1:47, 13 January 2021

Diolch, Gweinidog. I'm all for carbon budgeting and I think it's great that we're moving that way, but I do appreciate the complexity of trying to achieve that. But, as you've pointed out, we have to start somewhere.

Looking across other aspects of the draft budget, and I appreciate it's still a draft budget, but housing, for instance. I can appreciate how carbon budgeting comes in with providing better broadband, et cetera, because that obviously takes more people off the roads, but your decision on land transaction tax and, for instance, reverting to the previous rate for properties between £160,000 and £250,000—I think they're back to the 3 per cent level pre the pandemic—it's difficult to see how that's going to help those people certainly at the lower end of the housing market—first-time buyers—to get on the housing ladder. So, who do you liaise with and what evidence have you taken into account in taking those decisions on land transaction tax? And are you sure or convinced that the revenues that will be gained from doing that will actually be worth any negative impacts on the first-time-buyer housing market?