Council tax

Joel JamesConservative

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…sense. Because one of the things that has always been brought up with me is the formality of these council tax statements, or other statutory notices. Right from the start, then, people disengage with it, because they either don't necessarily understand what they're being told, or, 'This looks too…

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

So, every council tax payer receives information about council tax as part of their annual bill, so people will have it direct to them in that sense. But what we're asking, of course, is for local authorities to be more creative and think of other ways. So, local authorities have newsletters that…

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…was introduced, and people now look to social media for information. And also, when people get their council tax bills they'll have information from the council as well. So, there are other ways, and I think we're just trying to reflect modern life, if you like, in terms of the way in which people…

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Mabon ap GwynforPlaid

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…that the decision in this section is going to remove the requirement for local authorities to publish council tax determinations in local papers. Some of these printers and publishers are concerned that this is going to be a threat to the viability of the papers. Do you agree with that?

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…some things that we can do in the more immediate term—improving and addressing the low take-up of the council tax reduction scheme, for example. I think that we need to take some action on that pretty urgently, because there are so many people struggling who aren't aware of that support, or…

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Joel JamesConservative

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

Perfect. Section 18 of the Bill is making a provision for council tax discounts, disregards and exemptions. Obviously, there's about 50 at the moment, and there are plans that they will probably stay the same, from the evidence that you've given previously. I just wanted to get an idea of timescales…

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

I don't know why you would bring it in line with political terms, because I think that council tax reform needs to be seen as a good thing in itself rather than something that is political. I think that bringing it into a political cycle might add an additional level of spice to it that isn't…

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

We've suggested five years as the cycle for revaluation for council tax because, again, we think that that strikes that balance between certainty but then also keeping the details up to date. Because as you say, it's been 20 years since the last revaluation. The legislation, though, does allow for…

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Rebecca EvansLabour

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

We have the phase 2 consultation, which has just closed, in relation to our council tax reform programme. That particular consultation looked at the scale of reform and the pace of reform. Decisions haven't yet been taken with regard to either of those things. So, we'd have to be clearer about the…

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Joel JamesConservative

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

Thank you, Chair, and thanks ever so much for coming in this morning. I just want to talk about the proposals for council tax. As you'll be aware, one of the concerns is that, having not been revalued for nearly 20 years, there's going to be a big impact on some people. I just wanted to get an idea…

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Ben Crudge

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…with the idea of reducing the total number of appeals. The same will be thought through in terms of the council tax side of things, and the VTW and VOA have been through that journey on the NDR side, and they have an understanding of the capacity requirements to deal with appeals when they do land.…

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Ben Crudge

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…in the number of appeals that they're having to deal with at this stage. So, a similar system on the council tax side or an appeals process on that side is obviously an unknown, if you do a council tax revaluation, but they are also building up capacity to be able to deal with it.

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Ben Crudge

7 February 2024, Local Government and Housing Committee

Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill: Evidence from the Minister for Finance and Local Government

…and VTW obviously were a part of that, and they've come out of the other side of that confident. The council tax work is new and we've been training on that for a while with them and they're also confident that they're building up to deliver that also.

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