7. Is Business Wales meeting the business support objectives of the Welsh Government? OAQ(5)0183(EI)

Yes. Business Wales continues to evolve to ensure the service is meeting the objectives of the Welsh Government now and into the future. Business Wales offers a gateway to business support, along with providing direct advice, accelerated growth support, information, and guidance to SMEs in Wales.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for the answer that he’s given, and for the time he’s given over to discussing with me issues in the economy of Neath and the region. He’ll know from those discussions that small businesses, as I’ve reported to him, often find Business Wales not to be user-friendly to small businesses, and to be overly-centralised. Yet, for larger businesses, at a different stage in their growth cycle, if you like, they’re often looking for finance and business support to be joined up and integrated in a seamless offer, and yet we provide those through the Welsh Government through different channels. What steps can the Welsh Government take to address some of those challenges so we ensure that we provide the best possible support for companies that we want to grow, indigenous companies in Wales?

I’d like to pay tribute to the passion that the Member shows concerning business growth, not only in Neath, but across the whole of Wales. We’ve already taken steps to make it easier for Welsh businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to access information through Business Wales. But, moving forward, I do believe that there needs to be a greater alignment of activities concerning Business Wales and those of the Development Bank of Wales so that support and advice and access to both is much clearer to small businesses and those wishing to start up businesses. It is worth saying that Business Wales, in the four and a half years that it’s been operating, has improved its outputs year on year. There is a great success story to be told about Business Wales having helped to create 10,000 new businesses since 2013, but I am concerned that we make sure that all services delivered across Government—across local government and with our partners, are closely aligned so that a business, or a business start-up entrepreneur, only has to access one door, and, no matter how complicated the wiring might be behind it concerning the support or advice that they’re seeking to draw down, they have one point of contact and one door to walk through.

And, finally, question 8—Steffan Lewis.