And that's why Welsh Government has been fully and openly engaged with HM Treasury officials over the last two years, providing the UK Government with a number of documents addressing the criteria set out in the command paper, including the scenarios in which a tax is likely to apply and not apply, who would be the intended target of any tax, potential interactions with devolved and reserved taxes, tax bases and tax revenues, and impacts on the UK tax system for devolving this power. This work culminated in a joint paper by Welsh Government and HMT officials, recommending the material provided to date serves as the basis for the Welsh Government writing that formal request to the UK Government.

So, when I met with the then Financial Secretary to the Treasury, back in February, it was on the understanding that sufficient information had been provided by the Welsh Government and that HMT were content for our proposal to proceed to the next stage of the process, which would have been agreed between our two Governments for the devolution of the new powers. And at no point in that meeting did the then FST indicate that he felt proposals weren’t sufficiently developed to progress, and I’m still not clear what specific concerns have arisen between February and now that will require the Welsh Government to return to the start of the process. A draft Order in Council had been prepared, as well as an explanatory memorandum, which illustrated how the information provided would support the passage of the draft Order through both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. And it's very much my hope that the new Financial Secretary to the Treasury will draw comfort from the level of the detail that we've already provided, and recognise that throughout this process we have been more than willing to provide as much detail as we were able.

And, at this stage, no decisions have been taken by Welsh Government on how any future tax on land identified as suitable for development would apply in Wales. And, as we've outlined on numerous occasions, this detailed policy work will occur after the tax has been devolved to Wales and will follow an appropriately rigorous process here in Wales. And lots of the contributions from the Conservative benches today have been about the appropriateness of the tax, and the desirability of the tax, and it’s absolutely right that those discussions are had here and the scrutiny is done here in this place, and that, I think, is the crux of the point of this debate today. In the event that we are able to proceed to the next stage of the process and a UK consultation highlights any key scenarios or issues not addressed in the information that we've already provided, then of course my officials and I are committed to working with HMT to ensure that the UK Government has enough detail to inform a considered assessment. But, really, without any urgent movement, there really does have to be a review of the process.

So, speaking more generally, I think that this Welsh Labour Government has proven that it can be trusted on tax. Our decisions are founded on a strong set of tax principles, and they are that our taxes here in Wales should raise revenue to fund public services as fairly as possible, deliver the Welsh Government’s policy objectives, and in particular supporting jobs and growth, be clear, stable and simple, be developed through collaboration and involvement, and of course to contribute directly to the well-being of future generations Act goal of creating a more equal Wales. And those principles are surrounded by our tax policy framework, which is developed in collaboration with stakeholders, and lots of work goes on to develop that throughout the year through various forms of engagement with people with an interest. And also, we've got 20 years of experience here in terms of making local taxation. We've worked to make council tax fairer and we've made really good progress on that—removing young care leavers from the burden of council tax for example, and ensuring that we removed the sanction of imprisonment for people who don't pay, who are not able to pay, their council tax, because of course struggling shouldn't be seen as a crime. On Welsh rates of income tax, we kept our promise throughout the last Senedd. We didn't raise Welsh rates of income tax. And we've promised in this Senedd not to increase the burden of Welsh rates of income tax on families and people here in Wales for as long as the economic impacts of the pandemic are felt, and we will keep that promise. Compare and contrast that to the approach across the border, of course, with the recent national insurance contribution hike, which was done without any real understanding of the diverse impact that it would have, so I can't take any lessons from the Conservatives on that issue this afternoon.

On land transaction tax, we've taken different decisions here in Wales and we've taken the decisions that are right for Wales. So, in Wales, we removed the first-time buyers' relief and instead provided relief for all main residence properties up to £180,000, and that's actually close to the average house price here in Wales, meaning that we have a much more appropriate system here for our housing market and also one that is more progressive. And in December, you'll remember that we announced a 1 percentage point reduction in the non-residential LTT rates to help businesses through the pandemic and, also, an additional 1 percentage point was added onto the higher rates of LTT. And, of course, we didn't include buy-to-let landlords or second home purchases in our tax holiday during the pandemic and we were the only part of the UK to take that decision.

And then, on landfill disposal tax, we've seen particular opportunities for us in Wales and we were the first to introduce the unauthorised waste band and, of course, other parts of the UK are now following on that. And then, I just would reflect that I'm really, really proud of the Welsh Revenue Authority and the work that they do in terms of collecting our Welsh taxes. Again, this is a particular source of pride for us in terms of the quality of service that they deliver and the different relationship that we're establishing here in Wales with taxpayers.

So, to conclude, Llywydd, we have the principles, we have the framework, we have the stakeholder engagement, we have the experience and we have a proven tax record, which shows that this Welsh Labour Government can be trusted on tax.