Council tax bands in Wales are based on property values in April 2003 – 17 years ago. That is more up to date than in England and Scotland, where they are based on values in April 1991 (almost 30 years ago!). But it is still enough time for the relative values of different properties to change significantly: for example, official estimates suggest that while average prices had doubled since 2003 across Wales as a whole by the end of 2019, those in Blaenau Gwent had risen 171% compared with just 77% in Wrexham.
A presentation by Luke Sibieta, IFS Research Fellow, to the Wales Public Services 2025 conference, ‘Sustaining Wales public services: austerity and beyond’, 12 July 2018.
A response to the consultation from the Finance Committee of the National Assembly for Wales concerning preparations for replacing European Union funding for Wales
This briefing note provides background information on the police service in England and Wales. It details recent changes in police numbers and in police funding, and examines some indicators of police performance in the light of these changes. Finally, it considers briefly the Labour Party’s proposal to increase the number of police officers.