Ken Skates: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to announce that my officials have received a business plan for the development bank of Wales, which remains on target for its launch in the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approval. The bank will be headquartered in north Wales, and its key priority is to help micro to medium businesses in Wales access finance more easily, and...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions and say I would agree with him on many of the points that he’s made about the need to ensure that we do decentralise where we can and share opportunities right across Wales. I’d be more than happy to discuss with my colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, the idea of also ensuring the Welsh revenue authority is located...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank the Member for his questions and, again, his broad support for what we have presented today to the Assembly. I’m also pleased that the Member recognises that the business case will be published. I would hope to be able to be in a position to publish that early in the new year. Again, it is conditional on receiving the feedback from interested stakeholders and taking...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank Julie Morgan for her questions. I’ll be as brief as I can in answering them. First of all, with regard to crowdfunding, there is an estimate that crowdfunded finance will grow by a huge amount by the end of this decade. The problem that we face is that not all businesses, and indeed not all third-sector organisations, are aware of the potential or how to go about...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions and say that the remit will be clear? It’s not the lender of last resort, but this is an institution that will be addressing market failure and gaps where they are known to exist, and I think that that is already reflected. The fact that interest rates are lower than many actually believe they are already reflects the fact that it is addressing...
Ken Skates: I thank Jeremy Miles for his question. Actually, the idea of the patient capital is an excellent one, and it could well form part of the remit of the development bank of Wales alongside other Welsh Government manifesto pledges, principally one that concerns the growth of Welsh indigenous medium-sized enterprises to become businesses that have true global potential. I think that between the...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Hannah Blythyn for her questions? With regard to the interface with Business Wales, it’s going to be absolutely essential that the development bank of Wales and Business Wales work closely together to ensure that there is the appropriate support, advice and guidance given by the respective bodies. Deputy Presiding Officer, I am looking to establish a rapid response working...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank Nick Ramsay for his question. He makes a very important point, not least because I know Members across the Chamber are grappling at the moment with high-street banks that are looking at closing branches on their high streets and town centres. But we must also reflect on the fact that more activity is being undertaken online. For that reason, I’ve tasked Finance Wales...
Ken Skates: Llywydd, our position is that tolling should stop immediately and the crossings revert to public ownership, given the barrier that they represent to the Welsh economy and jobs and growth.
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his question? I am sorry that the Member has failed to observe our position, which I think has been very consistent. We have persistently opposed the existence of tolls when the crossings revert back to public ownership, and we have made our position very clear to the Department for Transport, at both ministerial and official level, and repeatedly in the media. I...
Ken Skates: I understand that the UK Government has carried out an analysis, based on the TEMPro 7 model, which I’m sure the Member recalls has been problematic in the past, especially insofar as modelling the M4 use is concerned. I personally do not believe that we should aim to promote road travel over and above rail or bus travel. I think that bus and rail travel are both something that we have a...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank the Member for his question and assure him that, even if he was asking me to consider tolling for that particular bridge in the area he represents, I would reject such a consideration. [Laughter.] The fact of the matter is—I go back to the point that I made earlier—in so far as general taxation is concerned, users of the Severn crossings have already paid a...
Ken Skates: It’s an incredible irony that it’s the so-called pro-business party that is actually in favour of a huge constant tax on users of the Severn crossing, whereas it’s actually the Welsh Labour Party that is proving to be more pro-business by arguing most vocally for the removing of this tax on business. We will do so unashamedly. We are arguing for improvements to the prospects of the...
Ken Skates: Well, I’d agree with the Member and say that it very much is a tax on Welsh businesses and a barrier to investment, and I hope that Conservatives at Westminster will listen to what Members in this Chamber have said, and drop their anti-competitive position.
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank the Member for his questions and his contribution. I think he is absolutely right: this is part of the jigsaw of the city region approach. I was pleased to see the leader of Monmouthshire council recognise the challenges, but also the opportunities, that removing tolls—or, in the very least, reducing tolls—on the Severn Crossings would have for the entire region, not...
Ken Skates: Formally.
Ken Skates: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Could I begin by thanking Members for their contributions today and for their continued interest in this significant subject? I’d also like to declare my membership of Unite the Union at this stage and suggest: at the outset, let’s just agree, everybody across this Chamber, that nobody should do or say anything to undermine the future of Welsh steel or...
Ken Skates: [Continues.]—that pension matters are not devolved. However, in our—yes.
Ken Skates: First of all, the pensions issue is a non-devolved issue, and the First Minister and I have been absolutely clear that, in the absence of any other opportunity, option or discussion, this is the only offer that’s available. And the question will be for workers to decide whether to accept the deal that is being presented to them or to reject it and therefore throw the entire steel industry...
Ken Skates: Yes.
