5. Will the First Minister make a statement on council tax levels in Wales? OQ56610

Llywydd, the average band D council tax in Wales for 2021-22 is £1,731. Local authorities and police and crime commissioners in Wales are given the flexibility to set their annual budgets and council tax levels in order to reflect their local priorities. They are then accountable to their residents for the decisions they make.

I thank the First Minister for his answer. Council tax payers in two councils in my region, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend, are forced to pay some of the highest rates of council tax anywhere in the UK. In both areas, they pay in excess of £1,900 per year on average for a band D property. We know that Welsh councils generally charge more on their council tax bills than their counterparts in England, and yet these councils have even managed to set rates above that high average. I know in your programme for government, which has been published on the Welsh Government website today, you say you'll seek to reform council tax in Wales, which clearly, based on these figures, is long overdue. Therefore, can I ask you for the specific detail of how you'll achieve this, to ease the burden of council tax on hard-working people across Wales?

Llywydd, it would help if the Member's question were based on just a few simple facts, wouldn't it? It is nonsense to say that council tax bills in Wales are higher than they are in England. The average band D council tax in Wales is £167 a year less than the English average. The average rise in council tax in Wales for the current financial year is 3.8 per cent; it's 4.4 per cent in England. He gets his basic facts wrong, and it doesn't help the case that he wants to make. No doubt he will be welcoming the fact that Neath Port Talbot council has agreed a council tax rise of 3.1 per cent for its local residents this year, significantly below the level agreed, for example, by Conservative Monmouthshire. So, his residents are lucky, aren't they, to be living with a Labour council?

Now, where I do agree with the Member is that the system we currently have does not fairly distribute the need to fund local services, and we will bring forward proposals during this Senedd term to reform council tax to make it fairer for Welsh citizens. That will not be an easy thing to do, because in any system that you look to make fairer, there will be some people who will have to pay more in order that those people less able to pay can pay less, and I look forward to his support when those proposals are brought forward.