Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:17 pm on 28 March 2023.
Well, Llywydd, I think the Minister has shown her willingness to listen to cases made in the industry by the way in which—and I know that Russell George welcomed it—she has provided an exemption for properties that can only be occupied for certain times in the year. But let's be clear about what the changes are there to do. They are there to make sure that proper businesses are able to take advantage of small business rate relief, and when they are properties that are let out on an infrequent basis and are not businesses in that sense, then they pay council tax like anybody else.
If you're a business, then I do not think it is unreasonable to say that you should be making your property available to be let for 252 days and that you should actually let it for 182 days; then you are a business. If you're not operating as a business, it doesn't mean you have to fold; it just means that you pay the council tax like anybody else. I think that is a fair basis on which people can be treated. The Minister has shown her flexibility where a case can be made, but the basic principle that people who seek to be treated as businesses operate as businesses, and people who don't operate in a business way are treated like anybody else, that's the basic principle and I don't think we're going to move away from that.