Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 15 February 2017.
Neil McEvoy
Plaid Cymru
1:30,
15 February 2017
Thanks, Cabinet Secretary. You are right, the green budget talks about tax rises or cuts that we face, and a very difficult future in Wales. But one thing we could do to help would be to stop money leaving Wales. I’ll give an example. In Cardiff West, the Earl of Plymouth is about to make roughly £1.4 billion from land sales that will destroy the countryside there. So, the question is: why don’t you legislate, so that Cardiff council, and other councils like it, can quickly reclassify land as agricultural land? The Welsh Government could then buy it—in this instance, for roughly £7 million. And, in this case, you could stop £1 billion leaving Wales, whilst securing the asset.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
