Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 2 February 2021.
I agree that the system needs reform. The report that the Member quotes is part of the research that this Government has commissioned into the current system to give us proposals as to how it might be reformed. There are very important choices, challenging choices, for anybody who wishes to bring about reform in the current system to grapple with, whether—and this is what the IFS report is primarily about—we should take some radical action to make the current system of council tax fairer and more progressive, including a rebanding exercise, or whether it is better to think of a different system altogether. Very significant work has gone on over the last few years through the Welsh Government to look at whether land value taxation would offer a better model altogether, even than a reformed council tax system drawing on the work of the IFS. So, this Government has been on the case of reform here throughout this Senedd term, making sure that there are practical proposals that can be implemented if a mandate for that is secured at the forthcoming Senedd elections.