7. What assessment has the First Minister made of council tax levels in South Wales West? OQ56766

I thank the Member for that. Local authorities in Wales have the flexibility to set their annual budgets and council tax levels to reflect local priorities and to sustain those services on which so many of our fellow citizens rely. Councils are independently, democratically accountable to their residents for these decisions.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. You'll be aware that Neath Port Talbot Council consistently sets one of the highest council tax levels in Wales. Residents simply can't understand why it costs NPT council so much more to deliver services compared to neighbouring counties. There's an issue of fairness at the heart of this. And whilst accepting each local authority's democratic right to set its own council tax levels, what work is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that councils across Wales are systematically reviewing their expenditure levels, and have you considered undertaking an investigation specifically into higher-taxing authorities, such as Neath Port Talbot, with a view to delivering more consistent council tax levels in Wales? Diolch.

The Member's constituents in Neath Port Talbot will be pleased to know that living in that area, with a Labour authority, the rise in their council tax this year is 3.1 per cent; that's lower than in Anglesey, lower than Gwynedd, lower than Ceredigion, lower than Carmarthenshire, where the Member's own party is in charge. So, I think they will appreciate that a little more probably than the question suggested. The Member may be aware today that figures published also show that Neath Port Talbot, very unusually for any other local authority during this very difficult year, has actually exceeded its expectations in the collection of council tax, and that is good news for residents of Neath Port Talbot, because it means that the local authority will have more resources than it had anticipated in order to provide the services that residents of Neath Port Talbot require and rely on every day. 

There are reasons why some local authorities have higher council tax rates than others, and they essentially rest in the make-up of those local populations. Those factors are well known to local authorities and are rehearsed every year in the independent group that we established in order to review plans for the council tax. And I'm sure that they are very well alerted to the points that the Member has made.