9. 5. Plaid Cymru Debate: Small Businesses

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:43 pm on 30 November 2016.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 4:43, 30 November 2016

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. It’s been a wide-ranging, largely positive and, indeed, at times, a deeply passionate debate. Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for injecting that note of passion. I’m not going to say it often, so, enjoy. [Laughter.] Indeed, thank you as well to Bethan Jenkins for reminding us that we can even do our bit for the Welsh economy while in our pyjamas, or whatever our choice of nightwear is. [Laughter.]

To take us down back to policy, business rates has clearly been one of the key themes because it is one of the most pressing policy issues that’s facing us at the moment. The finance Secretary is in his place, so I’m sure he will have heard, from all sides, Members referring to the problems that businesses face, particularly as a result of the revaluation, and we would urge the Government to look again at topping up the £10 million that is in the transitional relief, or maybe reintroducing, of course, the retail relief that was created in 2014, actually partly because of the delay in the revaluation, and was unfortunately cancelled before the election earlier this year. So, let’s see some additional action because of the small businesses that are facing problems at the current time. It’s great to see that the parking policy is going to be there, the pot of £3 million right across Wales. Yes, it is true that there is evidence that a simple, blanket free-parking policy—. I don’t think anyone argues that that would work. But there are data available, and there have been experiments across Wales. It is important that we do collect those data as well to see, where parking—and it will be a different pattern in different areas—is a particular problem, can we actually help in that regard. It is—