1. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues in local government on the future of council tax? OQ58421

Through our established partnership arrangements, I've involved local government at every stage in developing plans to create a fairer council tax. I met with all 22 leaders in June, ahead of launching our phase 1 consultation, and I will convene regular discussions as we move forward.

Minister, many people are worried about the cost of living. Many now fear that your consultation on the future of council tax will mean that more households will pay a lot more in tax as the last revaluation did. Council tax, along with mortgage or rents and energy costs are now the biggest outgoings a family will face and next year are also predicted to bring financial hardship to many. Has the Minister considered—[Inaudible.]

The first thing to say about our proposals in respect of the reform of council tax is that they are not going to happen immediately or require a revaluation of all of our properties across Wales in order to give us the building blocks for the revaluation. We have had some work done by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which has looked at the potential implications, and we think that there will be more people who gain, by either having a reduction in their council tax or by having their council tax stay the same, than there are in terms of people who would see an increase. We are thinking about transitional arrangements for those people who may see an increase and that's part of our consultation as well. But, at the moment, this really is about testing our ideas and gaining as many consultation responses as we can. We've had 900 so far, so it's been incredibly popular, but we want to hear from as many people with as many perspectives as possible.

In terms of the immediate challenges of the cost-of-living crisis, I do want to draw everybody's attention to our council tax reduction scheme. We know that there are people across Wales who aren't getting the support that they are entitled to through that scheme. And people can go to either their council website or the Welsh Government's website to find out more and see how they can apply for that support because, as I say, it's not being taken up by everybody who is entitled to it.

Plaid Cymru has long argued the case that council tax is in need of reform. It's outdated, it's regressive, and the IFS recognises this. The proposals jointly agreed by Plaid Cymru and Welsh Government are the first step in changing the council tax system to one that is fairer and more progressive whilst still supporting the services delivered by local authorities. But, with the cost-of-living crisis taking hold and knowing that council tax arrears is already a significant problem and likely to worsen, what conversations has the Minister had with relevant stakeholders relating to a potential debt bonfire, forgiving those in arrears? I know that would go a long way in helping so many in Wales today.

I do recognise as well that this is an important area of joint working between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government. I'm very grateful to Cefin Campbell in particular for the work that he's done in helping shape the ideas for a council tax that will rebalance the tax burden on households and fund the services that everybody benefits from, and that connects people to their communities and also has built in regular updates to keep it fair into the future.

I think the most important thing that we can do to support people at the moment is to ensure that everybody who is entitled to support through the council tax reduction scheme is able to get that support—and, as I say, there are lots of people who aren't—and also to work with local authorities in terms of the approach that they have to arrears. So, we've taken a person-centred approach to that. The local authorities themselves have come up with a set of guidelines and a toolkit to help them take that person-centred approach and to explore with the individual if there's more that they could be doing.

Quite simply, a bonfire of debt is unaffordable at the moment, unless, of course, Plaid Cymru want to pinpoint areas that we can move money from within the Welsh Government budget to support that. I'm always open to those discussions and those ideas, but, at the moment, I think it's about making sure that we have as many people accessing the support as they can, potentially reducing their bills to nil, and also supporting those who are in debt to have a manageable programme of paying back those debts to the council.

The reform agenda that's currently on to adjust and make a little bit more progressive the current tax system we have is welcome, and in fact it's long overdue, but it's why I'm also having letters from my constituents, because there will always be winners and losers, and I've got some constituents worried that they'll be on the losing side of this, but it is long overdue. But, could I ask the Minister, longer term, is the Welsh Government still, with other parties as well, interested in those discussions around a land reform tax, a fundamental change to the system, in the longer term, of course, or some sort of hybrid model? We know that's it had experimentation worldwide on this, but a Welsh version of this, surely, more progressive, more equitable, and also something that is a tax on the wealth of the landowners, as opposed to a tax on investing in the added value of that land, so it's not a disincentive to entrepreneurism. Is that still on the agenda?

Huw Irranca-Davies is entirely right that reform is long overdue. It's something that the IFS also noted in its report. It said that council tax is out of date, regressive and distortionary, and we recognise all of that. The IFS did recognise that we are the only part of the United Kingdom that has ever revalued its council tax base, but, nonetheless, we are still very out of date. And the work that we're doing will take us this whole Senedd term, I think, in terms of delivering our council tax reforms, but that doesn't mean that we're not thinking about more radical and fundamental reforms for the future as well. So, in parallel to the work that we're delivering on the revaluation, and the other work attached to that, looking at our support and our exemptions and premiums, and so on, we're also continuing the work on the land value tax, to explore what that might mean for Wales, how it might operate, and also, particularly, with an interest in the first instance, perhaps, in how it might operate in the field of non-domestic rates. So, I think there's a lot of potential there, but, just to reassure those colleagues who do have a strong interest in that, it's very much still part of our explorations.