Thank you for raising this question. Ultimately, of course, the setting of council tax is a matter for local authorities—or for the councils, I should say—themselves. That said, Welsh Government is keen to support people with council tax and the payment of council tax, and we support over 200,000 households with their council tax. Often, households aren't aware of the support that's available to them, so I would suggest in the first instance that they could contact the council or look on the Welsh Government's website for the information about the support that is there for them. The inability to collect all of the council tax through COVID I know has been a particular issue for local authorities, so last year I was able to provide local authorities with additional funding to recognise that they had found it more difficult to collect council tax, and I think that that was a useful intervention.

In terms of arrears, we've worked really hard with local government now to find a way in which arrears are sought to be collected in a way that is person centred. So, we very much ask local authorities to explore with that individual what the cause of the arrears is in the first instance—perhaps they're not claiming all of the support that they're entitled to, for example—and then to find a way that is sensitive to go about claiming those arrears. But, you know, it is a genuine issue during COVID, and we've worked hard to support local authorities, in recognising that they haven't been able to claim as much tax, and put in a much more person-centred approach to the collection of arrears.