Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 28 September 2022.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 1:54, 28 September 2022

(Translated)

Well, surely you will have considered this issue. The cut in the basic rate was going to happen from 2024 under Rishi Sunak's proposals, of course. So, hadn't you already started to consider or assess whether the time had come to use your powers in terms of Welsh income tax rates? Has there been any modelling done or is modelling happening to inform that debate? Because, on the one hand, you're constantly complaining of the shortage of funding to maintain services—and you've done that again earlier this afternoon—but, on the other hand, you appear reticent not to increase the tax in this context but to keep it at its current level, something that would produce some £200 million to help safeguard health, care and education services in Wales from the cuts that you're complaining about. Isn't there a major contradiction that you're reticent on the one hand to look in earnest at the tax levels in Wales within the powers that you hold, whilst you're also complaining that there isn't enough money in the coffers?