Rebecca Evans: Well, with respect, that's exactly what we have done. We provided a package of funding worth almost £0.5 billion to local authorities, and that funding is drawn down by local authorities on a monthly and quarterly basis on the basis of need, and the funding that they've already expended. So there shouldn't be confusion amongst local authorities in terms of what funding is available for...
Rebecca Evans: We continue to work closely with the Welsh Local Government Association and local government to assess and respond to the financial pressures currently placed on them by the pandemic. We are providing up to £0.5 billion of funding to support councils and to help them respond to the impacts of the pandemic.
Rebecca Evans: I have regular discussions with the Minister for economy and transport on support for businesses in Wales, and we've sought to create a scheme here that provides local authorities with the ability to move these grants on to businesses as soon as possible. Some of them, obviously, will be automatic, in terms of supporting those businesses that are subject to small business rate relief. What I...
Rebecca Evans: It's a great shame that the UK Government didn't respond positively to our request to bring forward the job support scheme by just one week. We even offered to provide the funding that would fill the gap from Welsh Government resources in order for them to do that. So, that is a great shame that the UK Government hasn't taken its responsibility to workers in Wales seriously, as I would have...
Rebecca Evans: So, clearly, the impact of any lockdown on businesses is particularly harsh, there's no denying that, and that's why we've put in place this £300 million support package for business, with a view to doing absolutely everything we can to support businesses across Wales, and to make the application process—where there is an application needed and it's not automatic—as swift as possible to...
Rebecca Evans: Well, you will certainly have had a flavour already of the kind of areas in which we'll be investing through local government with the work that Jeremy Miles has been leading on the reconstruction package, and you will have heard the announcement of £340 million to support some of that work. And some of that funding will be going through local authorities, with a particular focus on house...
Rebecca Evans: Well, support for local authorities has taken two forms: first of all, there's been the hardship fund, and that's a fund of £310 million, which includes additional funding to tackle homelessness—to get rough-sleepers off the street, for example—the funding for free school meals, adult social care, school cleaning and so on, and some general funding to help local authorities to address...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you to Rhun ap Iorwerth for raising the importance of certainty for local authorities, but also for Welsh Government, in terms of managing its budget over a period of years. I'm sure that he will share my disappointment at the news today that there will not be a longer term comprehensive spending review and instead we'll have a one-year spending round—a one-year spending review. The...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you for providing another example of a business that hasn't been able to access funding thus far. Clearly, I don't want to give the impression that the Welsh Government is going to be able to support every single business in Wales, because the funding we have simply doesn't extend to that. So, I do want to be realistic, but, at the same time, I do want to reflect that we have taken on...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that question, and also for setting out the particular circumstances that Aled finds himself in. Clearly, I don't know the full circumstances behind his situation, but, as I said in response to a previous question, it's really important that, this time, we have added that discretionary element for local authorities, which hasn't been there before. And that's in...
Rebecca Evans: Well, as Alun Davies has just recognised in his contribution, businesses across Wales have access to the most generous package of business support anywhere in the UK. And I think that that is a reflection of the priority that we've put on supporting businesses through the adjustments that we've made to Welsh Government budgets, alongside the additional consequential funding we've received...
Rebecca Evans: As part of our £300 million support package, just announced this week, we are ensuring that there is a discretionary element there for local authorities to disseminate to businesses in their area, and, to do so, we're particularly thinking of those businesses that, as Alun Davies says, don't have a premises, so they're not subject to non-domestic rates, for example, and so they miss out on...
Rebecca Evans: In response to the imminent national firebreak, and in line with our commitment to provide further support, we have created an enhanced phase 3 of the Wales-only economic resilience fund, comprising of almost £300 million to support businesses affected by the firebreak and previous local lockdown measures.
Rebecca Evans: I absolutely will make those representations. In fact, I have a finance quadrilateral meeting with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury just later on this afternoon, where I'll be making exactly that point about the switch over from the job retention scheme to the job support scheme. It unnecessarily creates difficulties for businesses in Wales, where they'll need to apply to two different...
Rebecca Evans: Both the Minister for economy and I do recognise what an incredibly difficult time this has been for businesses across Wales, but probably nowhere more so, I imagine, than in the tourism and hospitality sector. And that's why a total of 1,206 microbusinesses and small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism and hospitality sector in north Wales have already been awarded funding through...
Rebecca Evans: I have regular discussions with the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales about the fiscal challenges facing the economy as a result of the pandemic. We have so far provided additional funding amounting to more than £1.7 billion to help support our economy across Wales in 2020-21.
Rebecca Evans: I will be raising this urgent matter again today during a meeting with UK finance Ministers. The UK Government’s progress on the shared prosperity fund has been extremely disappointing, and there is still no clarity on how it will function despite only two months remaining until EU funding tails off.
Rebecca Evans: We are currently exploring ways forward that serve the best interests of both leaseholders and taxpayers, recognising the role building owners also need to play in funding this remediation.
Rebecca Evans: I regularly meet with the Minister for Housing and Local Government and council leaders to discuss the local government funding formula through the finance sub-group. This formula generates the funding allocation for Ynys Môn.
Rebecca Evans: Formally moved.
