Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 13 July 2016.
Wales has the opportunity at the moment to attract investment from England by providing a more favourable place to set up a business, which would bring desperately needed jobs into Wales. I’m sure everybody will agree with me that the more businesses we can attract here and the more jobs that are created the better. The present business rates regime hampers the creation of new businesses since it saddles a business with a large payment right at the beginning, before even that business has dealt with a single customer. Does the Welsh Government have any proposals to support new and small businesses via, perhaps, restructuring the business rates regime so that businesses are charged on the basis of profit or turnover, as opposed to the nominal value of the property they occupy?