Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 17 March 2021.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 1:39, 17 March 2021

(Translated)

I appreciate the Minister's efforts to put a spin on things, but what I see there is an admission that we need so many mitigation steps in place because council tax is fundamentally unfair. And the right answer—if there is such a thing—is that council tax wasn't fair when she came to post, and it's still not fair today. Because of the impossible situation that councils find themselves in and the way in which council tax fits into the general squeeze on public expenditure, council tax bills will again go up by twice the rate of inflation and more again across Wales, varying from 2.65 per cent in Rhondda Cynon Taf to almost 7 per cent in Wrexham. I and Plaid Cymru have argued that this could and should have been avoided this year. Spending around £100 million of unallocated funds to freeze council tax at this difficult time would have been a valuable step in terms of helping people with the response to COVID. And I can't claim that it's a particularly innovative thing from me; the Scottish Government are doing this. Why did the Welsh Labour Government decide not to?