Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 27 September 2022.
Again, I agree with everything that Alun Davies has said about this being a budget for the very richest, which will benefit very, very few people here in Wales. It is absolutely an extraordinary economic failure, and I agree that it is another approach by the Conservatives that sits right alongside Brexit in terms of ways in which it can cause long-term economic harm to Wales, and, obviously, all of the social and economic challenges that go alongside that as well.
In terms of the financial framework, yes, I think that there is more work to do now in terms of thinking about what the future of that should look like, and I know that colleagues will have a great interest in that. And I think this point about public services is one of the most important things, which I think has generally been overlooked so far in the coverage of the budget. But, as the dust settles and we start to understand what the impact will be on public services, and the fact that there is no more money coming and that difficult choices are going to have to be made, I think that we'll be talking much more about that. I know that local government and health, in particular, will have lots to say on that.
And then, just to respond to the specific question in terms of the cost of the changes to the LTT main residential rates and bands, in this financial year it will be £9 million; in 2023-24, £19 million; and in 2024-25, £18 million. The overall impact is that a higher proportion of transactions in Wales than in England will pay no tax, and around 61 per cent of transactions will be paying no tax in 2023-24. And, of course, the threshold increase that we've announced exceeds the price growth between 2018-19 and 2021-22. So, I think it does offer a good package for homebuyers. As I say, it's something that we've been working on over the summer. I had hoped to announce it alongside the draft budget, but I didn't want to cause uncertainty in the housing market, which is why I've brought it forward to today.