Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 3 February 2021.
The council tax and NDR system is actually in the portfolio of my colleague Rebecca Evans, although obviously I have a lot to do with that, because local government is one of the main beneficiaries. She very recently in the Senedd introduced a piece of research that we have had done, and I've been working alongside her in doing it, into exactly that—how to reform the council tax and NDR system in Wales on a completely different basis. There's a very interesting research report that's been put out for us as a result of that piece of work that's been going forward, and, of course, we know that—. In fact, I've been very pleased that she and I have been able to support local authorities in looking at the shortfall in NDR collection as a result of both the rate holidays that we've been able to put in because of the pandemic, and because, of course, of the changing nature of the way that retail, in particular, is structured in our city centres. So, she's done a very good piece of research that I've been pleased to be part of in doing that. I'm sure that there'll be an opportunity for whoever the new Welsh Government is to take forward some of the very many excellent suggestions that that research paper has proposed.