, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
The pipeline is a dynamic document, Chair. That's why it's published every year alongside the budget. So, to give a couple of examples, maybe, if you'd looked at the pipeline in any year almost for the last 20 years, you would have seen a phase of the Heads…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
And as Andrew reminded me, we're yet to have the February supplementary estimates from the UK Government, which will also make an impact on that. But on any previous experience and from what I think I'm seeing already, even in November, I think that there…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
I don't have a reliable sense of it at this point, because the monitoring is always at least a month behind. So, the monitoring information I have is probably for November-ish.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
I thank Rhianon for that, Chair. So, to answer the last part of the question first, as I said, as part of the agreement with Plaid Cymru, there is £120 million in unallocated capital that appears on the face of the final budget for an incoming Government next…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, look, it's a phenomenon that I think is well known, and we rehearsed it on the floor of the Senedd only last week in relation to land transaction tax. Who is the beneficiary of greater relief in land transaction tax—is it the seller or is it the buyer?…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Yes. Well, look, Chair, I think there are two slightly separate questions in what I just heard. There is: how did we decide on our transitional relief scheme following revaluation? Essentially, what we've done there is replicate the scheme we used last time…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, thanks to Mike Hedges for that observation, Chair. The way that I've tried to handle the budget in the years that I've been a finance Minister has always been to hold some money back for the final stage of the budget, because there always will be…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Andrew.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
I think Andrew can probably explain the technicalities of it.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Yes, yes.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, Chair, I can give some more detail, if it's helpful, of those, as I said, slightly smaller allocations, but nevertheless important allocations. So, to give you just three or four examples, if I could, there is £5 million that is new in the budget for…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
The level of decision making there would not be for me to take, Chair; that would be for my colleague the health Minister. But, as it happens, I'm aware of the investment that he is making in social prescribing for exactly the reasons that Mike Hedges has…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
I think that the settlement at 4.5 per cent increase in resource available to local government, with no local authority lower than 4 per cent, some local authorities above 6 per cent, is at the best end of what Welsh local government would have genuinely…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Well, I am quite sure that, as a small Government, it should be possible to do better than we do on some of those things. I think where we have succeeded is in bearing down on a risk that is there always, that a decision is made in one part of an…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Chair, in the budget documentation that we published, the budget report, I think we say explicitly that, despite the additional investment in health and social care, it will be another challenging year for the NHS next year, for all the reasons that you've…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Thank you, Chair. So, there are a number of significant changes between draft and final, and then there are a larger number of smaller but nevertheless important changes to report as well. In terms of the large changes, there are three or four things to draw…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government Final Budget 2026-27: Evidence session
Thank you very much, Chair. I'm Mark Drakeford, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language. With me this morning are Andrew Jeffreys, head of the Welsh Treasury, and Emma Watkins, who leads on the budget work for us.
, Plenary
The Landfill Disposals Tax (Tax Rates) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. In the draft outline budget statement in October, I set out the Welsh Government’s intended approach to increasing the rates of landfill disposal tax, or LDT, from 1 April. However, following the UK Government's setting of its…
, Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I am grateful to the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Committee for their consideration of these regulations. I have considered the response to the two technical scrutiny points that were raised. A small number of corrections will be made to the…
, Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
These regulations form part of our package of measures to address avoidance of non-domestic rates. This package has been developed through joint working with local government over several years. Under current arrangements, ratepayers are not obliged to notify…
, Plenary
The Non-Domestic Rating (Provision of Information About Changes of Circumstances) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I move the motion, Llywydd.
, Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I am happy to keep the matter under review and, indeed, to meet any of those who wish to discuss the changes. The Member is right, class H exemption does introduce a one-year limit for properties held by ministers. I don't think there…
, Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I'm grateful to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for their consideration of these regulations. I agree with points 1 to 4 and point 6. These will be corrected before the regulations are made. I ask Members to approve these regulations today.
, Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
These regulations are a clear statement of the Welsh Government's commitment to fairness. They deliver on our programme for government commitment in this Senedd term to review the 53 different categories of discount, disregard and exemptions, which had grown…
, Plenary
The Council Tax (Discounts, Disregards and Exemptions) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion.
