Item 5 is a statement by the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd on progress on devolved taxes, and I call on the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Introducing the first Welsh taxes in nearly 800 years has been an important milestone in our devolution story. During the past five years, the successful implementation of three Welsh taxes—the land transaction tax and the landfill disposals tax in 2018, and Welsh rates of income tax in 2019—has widened the responsibilities of the Welsh Government and the Senedd, strengthening our accountability for the money raised and spent delivering vital public services for the people of Wales.

We have also established Wales's first non-ministerial department, the Welsh Revenue Authority, on time and on budget. It has now been successfully collecting and administering the fully devolved Welsh taxes for three years. The WRA's distinctive approach to supporting the process for delivering a fair tax system means it works in partnership with taxpayers to ensure that tax is paid on time, and right first time.

We have set out our Welsh approach to tax policy in our tax policy framework, to explain how we will use taxes for the benefit of communities and businesses. The framework includes the principles we are following in developing tax policy, doing so though collaboration, seeking to create clear, stable taxes, which raise revenue fairly, support wider policy objectives, and help to deliver greater equality. And we've put those principles into practice.

We have used our powers to ensure that land transaction tax is significantly more progressive than its predecessor, stamp duty land tax, for residential transactions. We introduced a temporary relief to help the property market recover in the summer, and more recently increased the higher rate to generate additional support for Welsh public services. When the current temporary reduction to the residential LTT rates ends, Wales will once again be the only country in the UK with a starting threshold at around the average price of a home. That starting threshold means the majority of first time homebuyers won't pay any LTT. Wales also has the highest thresholds at which businesses need to pay tax on non-residential property transactions in the UK.

The primary purpose of landfill disposals tax is to support our environmental goals, so revenue should decline as those targeted by the tax respond positively. To date, we have retained consistency in rate setting with the UK Government, ensuring that we do not encourage the transfer of waste across the Wales-England border. However, there has been opportunity to innovate, leading the way by being the first UK country to set a higher tax rate for unauthorised landfill disposals and creating an additional financial deterrent for people disposing of waste illegally.

We have used £2.8 million of landfill disposals tax revenue to fund local projects via the landfill disposals tax communities scheme, maintaining our commitment to communities affected by the disposal of waste to landfill.

Of the three taxes, Welsh rates of income tax impacts on the highest number of Welsh citizens, paid by over half of the adult population. We work closely with HMRC, which retains responsibility for the collection and management of Welsh rates of income tax, to ensure that the processes run smoothly.

Our tax policy framework emphasises the importance of involvement and collaboration. We have encouraged this through the development of advisory and discussion groups to consider proposals under development, working closely with stakeholders. We have published annual work plans, announcing the issues we are exploring, and inviting comments, queries and contributions. Many of these policy areas have been discussed at the annual tax conferences, and progress is published in the tax policy reports. I will be issuing the latest tax policy report alongside the final budget next month.

A key area of tax policy activity has been the exploration of ideas for possible new taxes. We are pursuing competence for a vacant land tax through the inter-governmental process agreed with HM Treasury, whilst also investigating a disposable plastics tax, exploring the case for a tourism tax, and potential options for funding social care. It is regrettable the inter-governmental process for new taxes has failed at its first test. Further progress will be difficult, given the current UK Government's attitude towards devolution, and while it remains the arbiter of its own decisions.

During this Senedd, we have benefited from the support of many people and organisations who have contributed to the process of introducing Welsh taxes. I am grateful to them, and to the Senedd Members and the Finance Committee for the diligent scrutiny of the provisions that we have put forward. There is a continuing responsibility to ensure that our devolved taxes operate fairly and effectively, delivering the revenue required for our public services. And there's further work to be done on the scope for new taxes. That will be the work for the next Welsh Government and Senedd. They will build on the solid foundations of what we have achieved over the past five years. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. 

Despite, or, some might argue, because of, 22 years of so-called and self-described progressive Labour Welsh Government policies, Wales has retained the highest poverty and lowest pay rates of all the UK nations, and, even before coronavirus, almost a quarter of people in Wales were in poverty, living, quote, 'precarious and insecure lives'. These findings are all taken from independent reports. Does the Minister recognise that Wales needs to attract both inward and internal investment and high-skill, high-added-value jobs in small, medium and large enterprises? If so, does she recognise that there can be an inverse relationship between tax rates and tax revenues, and that using the system to incentivise economic activity can ultimately generate more revenue for public services? How does she respond to the findings of Cardiff University academics during the first year of this Senedd term that cutting the top rate of income tax will ultimately raise tax revenues by encouraging wealth creators to help grow the Welsh economy? 

The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 added discretionary powers for local authorities to apply council tax premiums of up to 100 per cent to second homes. As I warned at the time, this would not generate additional supply for people who need affordable homes in their communities, and enabling local authorities to charge second home owners additional council tax would risk unintended consequences. What evidence does she therefore have to support the Welsh Government's claim that enabling local authorities in Wales to levy council tax premiums on second homes is using taxation to ensure a fair contribution, when the sector has instead made it clear that this simply prompted many who had not known they were already eligible for small business rate relief to switch from council tax to this, and others to start letting out their homes and register for small business rate relief to help with costs, in accordance with Welsh Government criteria last revised and strengthened in 2016, and policed by the independent Valuation Office Agency? 

What evidenced analysis does she have to challenge the evidence showing that the vast majority of properties purchased as second homes in holiday home hotspots were already second homes, and had always been so, built as second homes over more than a century ago, and remaining so ever since? Why does the Minister state that Wales also has the highest threshold on which businesses need to pay tax on residential property transactions in the UK, when the Welsh Government's increased land transaction tax higher rates, which hit large numbers of legitimate small and medium-sized businesses, many of them with properties near the internal UK border with England, are higher than equivalent stamp duty land tax higher rates in England for purchase prices up to just £125,000, and higher for all purchase prices in England above just £180,000, or should I say higher than all purchase prices in England just above £180,000, even after the higher rates holiday introduced by the UK Government in response to the COVID pandemic comes to an end?

And finally, the Minister refers to the potential for a tourism tax. How will she ensure that objective consideration is given to the overwhelming evidence from the sector that this would be damaging to tourism in Wales, this would be damaging to investment, damaging to jobs, and would ultimately reduce the tax take received by the Welsh Government?  

I'm grateful to Mark Isherwood for those questions this afternoon, and I welcome him to his new portfolio. So, Mark Isherwood began by talking about the Welsh Government's general approach to taxation, and we have a very firm foundation for our Welsh tax policy, which is set out on the basis of five principles. That is that taxation should raise revenue to support public services as fairly as possible—I'm not sure that there's much that could be disagreed with there. Taxation should help deliver wider fiscal and policy objectives, including jobs and growth. Taxation should be simple and clear and stable. And taxation should be developed through engagement with taxpayers and stakeholders. Finally, taxation should contribute directly to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 goal of creating a more equal Wales. And I do think that those are strong foundations upon which to be basing our tax policy.

My statement this afternoon was in relation to the devolved taxes, which are generally known to be landfill disposals tax, land transaction tax and Welsh rates of income tax, but I know that Mark Isherwood was particularly interested in our approach to local taxation, including council tax and non-domestic rates. In terms of council tax, over the course of this Senedd term we have made significant steps forward in terms of making council tax fairer. We've exempted young care leavers from council tax to the age of 25. We've removed the sanction of imprisonment for the non-payment of council tax, because in our party we don't believe that being poor is a crime, and we've improved access to discounts for people with severe mental impairments and implemented a citizen-focused protocol for managing council tax collection and arrears, and also encouraged the take-up of all council tax support, and we've done so providing local authorities with significant financial support in order to enable them to undertake that work.

In terms of the specific concerns relating to council tax premiums on long-term empty and second homes, local authorities in Wales do have that discretionary power to apply those premiums of up to 100 per cent on the council tax bills for long-term empty and second homes in their areas. Those powers have been available since 2017. Local authorities asked for those powers, and we were pleased to provide them. Now, it is for each local authority to decide how they will undertake their—what decision they will make as to whether or not they will use that power locally.

In terms of land transaction tax and the impact on business, well, the decision that I announced alongside the draft budget is that businesses now, in the main, will be paying no tax on purchases of non-residential property costing less than up to £225,000. This will provide a small but material amount of additional support to businesses by reducing the capital required to invest in new business property, and those changes will result in fewer non-residential transactions paying tax on the acquisition of a property when entering into a new lease, and it will provide a tax saving to all of those businesses who buy property on which there will still be a tax liability. The largest savings as a proportion of the tax payable will impact most on small and medium-sized business. So, I took this decision being very mindful of the difficult period in which small businesses particularly are finding themselves in, and understanding that we have many entrepreneurs who are keen to set up a small business, and I want to create the right climate for them to be able to do so.

And then finally, on new taxes, you'll see from our tax work plan that we've been exploring very diligently the various types of new taxes that could be introduced in Wales, and the four that we chose to explore in the first instance were those that came through very strongly in the public consultation that we undertook. The First Minister, when he was in this role, led on that consultation, and actually I think around 200 ideas for new taxes came forward from people across Wales. And we undertook to explore the tourism tax, a potential tax on plastics, for example, but, in the first instance, we determined that we would take forward the potential tax and seek to devolve the powers for tax for vacant land, and, as I said in my statement, that really has fallen at the first hurdle. We've had a very difficult time engaging with the UK Government meaningfully on this, and it's a great shame that we haven't managed to make a success of what is a relatively uncontroversial and simple request.

Thank you. I just gently remind Members that this is a 30-minute statement and we're halfway through the time allocated now, and I have a number of speakers who probably will not get called. Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you to the Minister for the statement. Thank you to Mark Isherwood on behalf of the Conservatives for emphasising how poorly Wales has been served by the UK over a period of years too. We are talking, in these early years in terms of Welsh taxation, about something that is historic—it's a word that I've used and others have also used. And it's a core principle. We return to the Silk commission stating that important principle of the crucial relationship between taxation and accountability, and that's what we're talking about here. The more taxation powers that this Senedd holds, the more accountable we are to the people of Wales, and that's something to be welcomed. And as we go into an election, we're now in this new landscape where the people of Wales have the ability to look at the various taxation pledges made by the parties, and it's a very important debate to have.

I'm disappointed with the developments there have been in addition to the taxes already introduced. The land transaction tax has worked well, I believe. The Welsh rates of income tax are crucial in generating the accountability that I mentioned earlier, and the landfill disposals tax is also important, but we need to look at how far we can take this.

The Government has referred to four other taxes that they would seek to consider: a social care levy—I look forward to seeing how we can provide social care within general expenditure and I'm sure that that is possible. The Government wants to look at a disposable plastics tax. It’s three years and more since Plaid Cymru forced a vote in this Senedd, stating that we wanted to see that tax, and where are we three years on from there? The tourism tax: I don't think, after the year we've just had, that we should be talking about a tourism tax—that's not what the sector wants to hear now. However, I do feel that there are innovative things that we can do through some sort of levy that will provide improved services to tourists, which would strengthen infrastructure to safeguard our communities where tourism is at its highest, to promote indigenous tourism, but we need to be very careful in talking about a tourism tax at this particular point.

And that fourth tax, the vacant land tax, the Government, to be fair, has been clear in pushing this agenda. I share the Minister's disappointment in the UK Government's response. It is proof of the failure of the inter-governmental process that no ground has been gained in this particular debate. It is a signal, I fear, of the UK Government's attitude towards giving powers to Wales to extend its taxation powers, which will be so important in years to come. However, I do urge the Minister not to give up now. I hope that it's my party that'll be in Government after May, but there's time to go until then, so don't rest on your laurels in pushing this new tax. I would encourage you to push this until the very last moment.

One further point: it is within your gift to change the rules, as Mark Isherwood mentioned, allowing people to opt out of paying tax on second properties in Wales. The Welsh Government has the power to close that loophole in order to ensure that those who own second homes, and at the moment can take advantage of the rules for their own benefit, shouldn't be able to do that. I know that the Government made a statement on this this week and, in that, you're not going far enough or moving quickly enough; we need improvements there, as part of these changes to the taxation landscape in Wales.

Diolch. Rhun ap Iorwerth began by talking about the importance of taxation and accountability and transparency. I'm really proud that the Welsh Government is the only Government across the United Kingdom that will have tabled three supplementary budgets over the course of this financial year. And, of course, our budgets are so closely linked to the revenue that is raised here in Wales. I think that the level of transparency that we have provided across the financial year in this respect has been exceptional, and certainly has been greater than any other part of the United Kingdom. I would be keen—and I'm sure a future finance Minister would be keen—to explore how they could build on the kind of level of transparency that we have been able to deliver on in this year.

Rhun ap Iorwerth mentioned a number of new tax areas that we are looking at, and referred specifically to the case for the vacant land tax. It is the first time that we have navigated the process that has been agreed with the UK Government. Unfortunately, it has been shown wanting. More than two and a half years have gone by since the proposal was first put to the UK Government. In spite of what, at some points, have seemed to be reasonably productive relationships, in August we did receive a very disappointing letter from the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and that reopened a whole series of questions that we had thought had been already answered in our previous negotiations. So, it is the case that the process does have some serious flaws to it. I think that this is fundamentally about the UK Government being the judge and jury on all of these things, and there definitely needs to be an independent mechanism for those decisions to be discussed and appealed.

Reference was also made to the potential social care levy, and the work that has been going on in scoping how something like that might work, should a future Government decide to do that. My colleague the Minister for Health and Social Services is intending to provide a fuller update to the Senedd on the work of the inter-ministerial group on paying for social care. But, it is the case that funding has been a really important part of that, and I know that several colleagues will have taken part in the technical briefings that were provided very recently in that respect.

The disposable plastics tax: well, this is something where there has been a serious amount of work undertaken with the UK Government, actually, in this case, exploring the options for tackling unnecessary plastic use and waste, and recognising the advantages in this case that adopting a UK-wide approach would bring. That's included supporting consultations on a UK plastic packaging tax, extended producer responsibility for packaging, and the potential for a deposit-return scheme for drinks containers. The UK Government announced a further consultation on the detailed design of the plastic packaging tax as part of the UK Government's budget last year, and we're working closely with the UK Government on that. As I say, there are some areas where I think that it is reasonable and desirable to work together.

Finally, a tax that Rhun ap Iorwerth didn't mention, but I know that he shares my view on, and that's air passenger duty. Again, this is one of those areas where we certainly won't stop seeking the devolution of it, given the important role that it could play in supporting the Welsh economy. We think that the UK Government has a completely untenable position on this, and I'm grateful for the cross-party support that we have in that respect in the Senedd.

When I think of tax, I think of the children's story where someone is told, 'You have a great power; be careful how you use it.' The Minister refers to the new taxes—the land transaction tax, the landfill disposals tax and the Welsh rates of income tax—which have been added to council tax and business rates. Taxation needs to be progressive, with those with the most money and ability to pay paying the most. So, loopholes need to be removed.

Tax exists to pay for public services—the public services that we all need. I would like to ask the Minister for an update on progress regarding a plastics tax. If we don't have a plastics tax, we will not deal with plastic pollution. Every one of us has seen more and more items that used to come in glass now coming in plastic. The most recent one that surprised me most was vinegar.

Also, a tourism tax. This is common throughout the world. It certainly deserves investigation. As someone who paid £135 per room for a night in a budget hotel chain, I do not see how it would affect affordability. Places like New York have a tourism tax. It's hardly looked at as a Marxist stronghold.

Can I also say that council tax needs more bands? It needs more at the bottom and more at the top. Band B starts far too high, and the top band ends where there is room for at least three, and possibly another four, bands. I keep going on about this, but for it to be fair, somebody in a £5 million house should not be paying the same as somebody in a £0.5 million one.

Thank you. So, building on the comments that I made in response to Rhun ap Iorwerth's questions relating to a plastics tax, I can confirm that the Welsh Government has been facilitating engagement events with key stakeholders in Wales in relation to the work I described that we are undertaking with the UK Government. In May of last year, for example, stakeholders were encouraged to attend an information-sharing event on the plastic packaging tax, led by the UK Government. But, in August, the Welsh Government, alongside WRAP Cymru and the UK Government, led an engagement event specifically for Welsh stakeholders in the plastic packaging industry.

Officials within the Welsh Treasury are continuing to work with the UK Government on the next steps in ensuring that Welsh representations from key stakeholders here are fed into the process and are heard strongly, leading up to the implementation of the tax, potentially I believe, if things go as planned, in 2022. For example, officials are discussing support for businesses, given that this is a complex tax, even for those experienced in this type of legislation, and also the difficulty in reaching small and medium-sized enterprises during the consultation process. There were industry working groups happening every couple of months, and there will now be a technical consultation on the legislation as a further step. So, there is good work going on here, and Welsh interests are very well represented in that work.

Alongside that, though, the Welsh Government is also currently building an evidence base to assess the merits of introducing a Welsh-specific tax or charge on single-use plastic cups. And we're also trying to get a better understanding of the market and the usage of such cups. So, this is a particular area that might be suitable in future.

On the issue of council tax, Mike Hedges and I have discussed this on a number of occasions, and he'll be aware of the suite of research that we've commissioned, and the FM had the opportunity to refer to some of it during First Minister's questions earlier on, which, potentially, sets out a route for fairer local taxation in future. I think that there's great scope, and certainly the research that has been coming in, and which I've made available to colleagues through written statements, will definitely help us to find our way forward on that.

Llyr Gruffydd. No Llyr Gruffydd?

No.

Ah. Llyr Gruffydd?

No. Apologies, Deputy Presiding Officer, there's been a—[Inaudible.]

Thank you. That makes my timing slightly better. Thank you. Alun Davies.

I'm grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and grateful to the Minister for her statement. There are two issues I want to raise with her this afternoon. First of all is the place of tax, not simply as a means of raising revenue, but also as a tool of policy to deliver and to shape policy. I'm disappointed that the Government does not include sustainability as one of its key principles for taxation. I believe that we should be looking towards using tax to limit, potentially, or to penalise if you like, the use of resources and to shape a response to climate policy, which is more profound than we do at present. Some of the issues we've discussed this afternoon, in terms of plastics and in terms of return charges, do play into that sort of field, but I do think that the Government should use tax as a means of delivering on its sustainability principles as well, and I would like to see that within the overall suite of principles that the Government use.

The second point is on what you call new taxations, and the process that has failed with the United Kingdom Government. Those of us who were victims of the legislative competence Orders never ever want to see one of those come in front of us again. It was a painful process that was well meaning but collapsed under the weight of its own bureaucracy. I think MPs and AMs, as we were at the time, collectively hated the process, and we certainly don't want to go back to those days. But we need a process that works. It's no surprise that the current United Kingdom Government has no interest in working with the devolved administrations on anything realistic at all, but we need a process that works.

Like others this afternoon, I've got no issue with a tourism tax or a tax on vacant land or anything else. You pay a tourism tax in most states in the world, as far as I—

The Member will have to draw his remarks to a conclusion.

I will do so. It seems rather perverse that we have this debate here. So, I would like to hear from the Government how they intend to pursue this matter in the future. Because I think it's an important part of the overall structure of governance that the Government is able to pursue the matter of alternative taxations.

I absolutely agree with Alun Davies that there are two sides to the coin, if you like, in terms of raising taxation here in Wales. One is about raising revenue, but the other, of course, is about behaviour change. Our landfill disposals tax speaks very strongly to that, because we want to see those figures actually going down. I'm keen to explore, in future, what more we can do with landfill disposals tax in terms of supporting that circular economy that we want to see.

Alun Davies referred specifically to our tax policy framework, which is underpinned by those five principles, and, actually, as a result of conversations that I've previously had with Alun Davies on the floor of the Senedd, and also some discussion in the Finance Committee, I have asked officials to start a piece of work that reviews those principles, to explore whether they are still the right principles for us going forward or whether we need to change and adapt them. Certainly, I think that that important role that tax has in terms of delivering that greener Wales that we want to see is up there with those potential principles for the future.

Then there was the important point about whether or not the inter-governmental relationships are working and to what extent the machinery that sits around and supports that is also working. I think that this certainly would be an area where we would want to see improved working with the UK Government, but it is an area that speaks very strongly to one of those areas where we need an independent arbiter now to explore the evidence that we've provided, which we believe fully meets everything that we're required to do under the Act, in terms of providing information and data and views and so forth in order to see the devolution of the power. I think that we need that outside view as to whether or not there is more that is required of us, or whether the stalling is purely political, as I believe it might be, on the part of the UK Government.

Finance Minister, I agree with much of what you said about the Welsh Revenue Authority and how well it's doing as an organisation. I've also enjoyed at least one of the tax conferences you've had. I don't think the success of the WRA is because it's done on a Welsh basis rather than a UK basis, but I do think it goes to show how much more efficiently public services can be delivered when you start with a clean slate and you don't have the legacy IT systems. I think moving all the IT to the cloud and the way they've managed that has been a real success.

You spoke very shortly about Welsh rates of income tax. Clearly, we're unhappy that they've been devolved without the referendum that was previously promised. However, can I ask you to update us about what the revenue loss is because of this devolution of these Welsh rates? Clearly, they haven't been changed yet, so it hasn't had the level of public interest that it would if they were changed, certainly if the taxes went up. But is it not the case that the yield from this 10 per cent of the Welsh rates is less than was expected? And although there's still a degree of protection, do we not know from the Office for Budget Responsibility that we're now having substantially less money because of that level of devolution? Can you confirm how many million that now is?

Finally from me, you say that the process for new taxes has failed in its first test. I would say that it has succeeded in that it's stopped new taxes being devolved. The Welsh Government has looked at this mechanism and seems to have assumed that its intention is for lots more taxes—additional taxes that people might like to have for whatever reason—to be devolved. Actually, the process has stopped that, and that is something that we welcome. The First Minister, in his previous role, said he wants to test the machinery. That's now been done; it isn't leading to the new devolution of taxes, thankfully. Therefore—

Will the Member draw his remarks to a close?

—can we stop wasting people's time in having 200 new ideas and exploring all those very diligently and just accept that we're not going to be having new taxes devolved?

I'll begin by welcoming Mark Reckless's kind words about the Welsh Revenue Authority; I think that is has performed exceptionally well, and it does take a completely different approach to the collection of taxes as compared to HMRC or other revenue authorities. The fact that it has been able to build something completely new and fresh has enabled it to perform very well. Over 98 per cent of returns are filed digitally, 98 per cent filed on time, and 87 per cent of transactions go through without needing any manual intervention at all. And 88 per cent of people who were surveyed about their experiences of using the system found that it was easy to use. So, I think that that's really positive, and I think that the team there have done an absolutely excellent job.

That's probably where Mark Reckless and I depart in terms of our agreement. But he did mention WRIT, and particularly forecasting WRIT. The OBR's latest forecast for WRIT revenues in 2021-22 is £2.064 billion, and that's the figure that we've included in the draft budget. The forecast revenues are, as I know that Mark Reckless is aware, £35 million lower than the associated block grant adjustment, based on the forecast for equivalent revenues in England and Northern Ireland. But the way in which the block grant adjustment is calculated is set out in the fiscal framework agreement, and that agreement also includes the introduction of a needs-based factor in the Barnett formula, which the Welsh Government secured as part of the package. That has delivered nearly £600 million of additional funding for Wales. So, I think that that more than outweighs the £35 million to which Mark Reckless refers. 

On the final point, which was about the vacant land tax and the way in which the system works, of course, the process was agreed jointly by the UK Government and the Welsh Government, so it's in all our interests, I think, that at least the process should work. This is the point about the UK Government taking decisions about the desirability of the tax, about policy behind a tax, when actually it shouldn't be looking at that, it should just be looking at where the competencies lie and exploring devolution on that basis. So, that's where, I think, the system has fallen down on this occasion.

Finally and briefly, John Griffiths.

Minister, would you agree with me that it's been very frustrating over the years of Conservative Governments at Westminster to see the progressive policies of Welsh Government undermined by the measures taken at Westminster, and that the more we can pull down powers to Wales, including taxation powers, the better position the Welsh Government will be in to respond to what the Welsh people want, which is a fairer Wales? That's what they vote for when they elect Labour Governments, and these new taxes—the land transaction tax, for example—offer the ability to do that. To some extent, the Welsh Government has done it. In looking at council tax variations and possible new bands, I'm sure the Welsh Government will do the same. Could you tell us, Minister, in your work in engaging with the Welsh population around new taxes and taxation in Wales, whether that desire for fairness has come through strongly? And if so, will Welsh Government make sure that it responds appropriately? And very quickly on the tourism tax, I wonder if you would agree that it's a small payment for people to make in terms of tourism taxes, but it can have a big impact in improving the tourism product, which will be very beneficial for tourism operators and communities right across Wales.

Thank you very much to John Griffiths for raising that issue. It gives me the chance just to provide examples of how the Welsh Government takes different decisions to the UK Government where we do have the responsibility for taxes.

One is, of course, the land transaction tax. We have the most progressive system here in Wales. Our reliefs aren't just limited to first-time buyers—although the majority of first-time buyers do benefit—actually, we realised that people on relatively modest incomes buying relatively modest properties still need that kind of help, regardless of whether it's the first time that they've bought a home or whether they're moving on to a larger property, or downsizing to something smaller. So, we're keen to see what we can do to use our system to provide help to everybody who needs it. And, again, with the landfill disposals tax, we took a different approach here, and introduced that unauthorised waste level in order to ensure that people who were fly-tipping and so forth paid more as a result of that. Again, I think that that's about fairness. The public awareness of Welsh taxes and public views on Welsh taxes, I think, do support a keenness to have a genuinely progressive system.

And then, just finally, on a potential tourism tax, as I say, it's something that we are just scoping out at the moment in terms of having some discussions with the tourism sector and with local authorities. That work has been paused, if you like, through the pandemic, because clearly there's a time to have those discussions, and with the pressures and stresses felt by the tourism industry, it certainly wasn't the time to have those discussions. But, in future, a tax potentially could be there to support the tourism industry with revenues reinvested in the tourism offer locally. But it could be something, I think, for local authorities to think about on an individual basis. We'll continue to have those discussions to better understand the views of both local authorities and the tourism sector too.

Thank you very much.

The proposal under Standing Order 12.24 is to take items 6, 7 and 8, which are the Landfill Disposals Tax (Tax Rates) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 and two sets of land transaction tax regulations, as one debate, but with separate votes. So, unless I see any objections, I'm going to assume that that's how we'll move on. I don't see any objections.