Diolch, Llywydd. I'm grateful to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee and the Finance Committee for their reports. The regulations the Senedd is considering today are subject to the made affirmative procedure. In this case they came into force on 10 October, but, to have permanent effect, they must receive the Senedd's approval today.

On 27 September I set out the changes I'd be making to the land transaction rates and bands. These changes came into force on 10 October. If the UK Government had chosen to share its plans with us earlier, we might have been able to make these changes on the same day that they were announced, or even on the day of the UK's now infamous mini-budget. However, the UK Government's refusal to share information with us meant we were not able to respond as quickly as we would have liked, and homebuyers in Wales had to wait a few weeks to benefit from the changes that we made to LTT rates.

As I said in Plenary on 27 September, I was already considering changes to LTT rates and bands to reflect the increase in residential property prices that we've experienced, especially over the last two years. I had planned to make changes when we publish our draft budget in December, but I've brought forward those changes to give homebuyers and the housing market certainty.

The changes to LTT mean that the starting threshold has increased to £225,000—equivalent to a 25 per cent uplift. The effect of this now is that 60 per cent of residential property in Wales is below the new threshold, including many homes acquired by first-time buyers. This means that just under half of residential property transactions will pay no tax, and that's a higher proportion than in England. The rate of tax charged on the new first tax band has increased from 5 per cent to 6 per cent, and this means that homebuyers buying a home costing less than £345,000 will see a tax reduction of up to £1,575. For those properties costing more than that amount, there is a maximum increase in tax payable of £550, which will affect around 15 per cent of residential property purchases.

Transitional rules enable those taxpayers who had exchanged contracts before 10 October to pay the old rates, where that is beneficial. Crucially, and unlike the UK Government, tax reductions were not provided to those liable to the higher residential rates of LTT, including those buying second homes, short-term holiday lets, or buy-to-let properties. The changes are forecast to cost £29 million in total for this year and the following two years combined. The net impact on the Welsh budget, due to the block grant adjustment provided by the changes to stamp duty land tax, is to increase our resources over that period by £45 million. I could have used the full amount of the block grant adjustment to further reduce the amount of tax collected. However, we are in a time of considerable economic uncertainty, including possible property price falls. It is also a time of incredible pressure on Government spending. I wanted to use this additional capacity for our spending commitments rather than providing tax reductions to some of our citizens who are most able to pay, and I ask Members to approve these regulations.