As many of you will know, the Welsh Government announced its consultation regarding the proposed changes to our council tax system here in Wales.

Rest assured I will be making sure that the Welsh Government is held to account when making such massive changes. This consultation outlines three different approaches to reforming council tax in Wales.

The first course of action is one with minimal changes, this would focus on ensuring the property values of houses in Wales are up to date. This would mean revaluing properties and placing them into a modernised version of the current structure.

It is estimated that bills in Monmouthshire could increase by 3.3%, the lowest increase that would be incurred as a result of the proposed changes.

The second approach being considered is that would have a modest approach to reforming council tax, retaining the nine-band structure and update it, but also changing tax rates charged for each band so that bills for properties in lower bands would fall, but bills for properties in the highest band would rise.

This would have a higher impact on bills with council tax expected to rise by an average of 13.5%.

Finally, the most extreme approach that the consultation is address would increase the number of bands from nine to twelve. One of the newly added bands would encompass the lowest value homes while the other two bands would encompass properties with a top worth of over £1.2 million.

I am concerned by this approach considering the fact that council tax in Monmouthshire could rise by as much as 16% under this scheme.

I agree that council tax bands should better reflect the fact that house prices having risen drastically over the course of the last 20 years, however drastic action could leave many people in Monmouth with incredibly high bills and no means to pay them.

The last thing that we should be seeing is people being forced to move out of a house they have worked hard for as a result of increasing council tax.

I sincerely hope the Welsh Government consider its approach carefully ensuring our elderly population is taken into account.

I will be following the developments of this consultation closely and will be holding the Welsh Government to account ensuring that the people of Monmouthshire are not landed with incredibly high bills that they are unable to pay.

In the meantime, I would encourage everyone to respond to the Welsh Government’s consultation and have your say by going to the website at www.gov.wales/council-tax-reform.