Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I thank the Members who’ve taken part in this debate this afternoon? It’s a very timely debate given the consequences of next April’s rates revaluation are now becoming clear—and I would say only recently becoming clear, certainly to the businesses out there that are going to be faced with increases.

As Russ George said in opening, the situation we find ourselves in here is in direct contrast to that in England, where the UK Government have announced plans to increase rate relief for small firms, ensuring that no company with a rateable value of less than £12,000 would pay any rates at all. I’ve heard what a number of Members have said in this Chamber this afternoon, criticising the situation across the border in England. Certainly, it isn’t perfect. No system of taxation is ever perfect, or indeed business rates revaluation, but there’s no doubt at all that businesses in my constituency are looking across that border and they are seeing aspects of the way the revaluation has been handled in England that are better than have happened here or certainly are better than are promised here. So, I would bear that in mind. This is clearly not the perfect situation across the border, but I think the Welsh Government would do well to look across the border and to look at ways that we can improve the sort of support that we’ve got here.

The businesses I’ve spoken to—and there have been many; I’ve got just a handful of the e-mails I’ve received in the last couple of days. I can’t remember, since being elected to this Assembly, having an issue that has caused such anguish in such a short space of time and generated such a flurry of e-mails. I can see David Rowlands nodding; this is obviously not just a situation that is affecting my office. There really is anger out there. There is despair, I would say. I even had an invite to a closing-down sale from one shop in Monmouth for next April/May, after this is due to take effect. So, let us be under no illusion at all about the extent of concern and worry that there is out there across Wales in those areas that are affected by these increases.

I appreciate that this is not a problem across the whole of Wales. We are not saying it is. There are certainly, as the Cabinet Secretary said, businesses that have actually done quite well from the business rates revaluation. That is an aspect of any revaluation; you would expect that. I think what we haven’t seen before is the scale of the detriment to the large minority of those businesses affected. I think what is becoming clear, as Andrew R.T. Davies said in his contribution, is that the scale of the number of businesses that are affected by this problem is now increasing. We weren’t quite aware of the number of areas affected. We knew that Cowbridge was affected. I knew that Monmouth was affected. But I now know that Chepstow is affected and other rural areas, so this is a far greater problem than we first anticipated.

Those businesses that are affected are facing huge hikes—10 per cent in some cases. Of course, as we’ve said—. And higher than that in a few other cases; I know one business in Chepstow that is facing up towards a 100 per cent increase due to different conditions. This has been exacerbated by the multiplier, which I understand is a necessary condition of maintaining a revenue-neutral approach to revaluation. But, nonetheless, the multiplier is affecting this and, of course, then the absence of an adequate system of rate relief, which those businesses need to see.

Let’s be frank, as many Members across the Chamber have been, about what we’re talking about here: this is nothing less than the nail in the coffin for many businesses across this country. We talk a lot in this Chamber, as Mohammad Asghar said, about the need to support businesses, of retail premises, the need to regenerate our high streets. We’ve had debates on that and other parties have, and we’ve had committee reports on regenerating our high streets, but all of this will be for nought if, at the end of the day, we do not address the problem that our businesses are facing, not in 10 years’ time or 20 years’ time, but next year, when this fully comes into effect. So, unless we tackle this head-on now, then a lot of the other discussions that we’ve been having in this Chamber over the last few years will be academic.

As our motion highlights, the current shop-vacancy rate is already at almost 14 per cent, with the projected rate of store closures higher in Wales than anywhere else in the UK over the next two years. So, we, sadly, are not starting from a great place at the outset of this process. So, we really cannot afford for things to get worse. We cannot afford not to tackle this problem head-on and to make sure that these companies, these businesses, that need support, get it.

Adam Price—in your comments, Adam, you made a very interesting number of points, actually, calling for a complete overhaul of the whole business rates regime, which you described as a 400-year-old tax. And, of course, it’s an attractive proposal to get rid of a regressive tax. The real question, of course, which you did move on to talk about, is what do you replace it with, and you suggested a land tax as one possibility. And, of course, unless you don’t mind losing the income if you get rid of that tax—which, of course, the Welsh Government couldn’t afford to do, so we would need replacements, and the Cabinet Secretary mentioned this as well.

So, we’ve heard some options provided for an alternative, and I think we all agree this is definitely worth exploring; we agree with that aspect of your motion. We shouldn’t shut the door on the wholesale reform of business rates within Wales and, as you’ve said, because of withdrawal from the European Union, one of the corollaries of that, actually, is we can now look at the way that taxation works in Wales and we can look at doing something here that might not have been possible a few years ago. However, this does need much more work, and what we are talking about now is providing immediate assistance to those businesses affected, not next year, not in two years’ time, but now.

We talk a lot in this Chamber, but I don’t think there’s ever been a case where action was more required than now—and immediate action. As Janet Finch-Saunders said—well, Janet Finch-Saunders provided a showcase of Welsh Conservative policy since the election, and before. You made a very, very strong case, Janet—I know you’ve had direct experience of this in Llandudno in your constituency—a very strong case for providing far more and very real support for small businesses and retail premises across Wales. Your message was very simple, at the end of the day, and, of course, this is actually a quite straightforward problem that needs a straightforward solution, and that is greater support.

I would point out to you, Jeremy Miles—I agreed with some of the things you said, actually, but I would point out that, in today’s autumn statement, which you did question as to whether there was much support for businesses, the Chancellor has announced that rural rate relief in England will be increased significantly. So, they are looking in England at providing far more support for businesses in rural areas across the border, so I think anything less here in Wales would not be good enough. And, as Russell George said in opening this debate, why do we put up with second best? Why don’t we make sure that the system that we’re going to have here in Wales is actually world class—UK class at least? This doesn’t just need to be an adequate solution to this problem; let’s do something here that really can set the support for businesses in Wales on a footing with businesses across the UK and put them ahead of the game. We’ve been talking about that for a very long time, but, as I said, the time now is for action.

In conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, let’s be ambitious for Wales. Let’s use this problem, this short-term, medium-term problem, to move forward and provide a system that is up to dealing with the challenges of today and the challenges of tomorrow. Let’s incentivise local economies, let’s make sure that our businesses are best able to deal with the challenges that they are facing. But if we can’t get over this hurdle that we are facing over the next few months, then we are going to find it very difficult to get over the hurdles that the next few years will present us with.