Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 9 October 2018.
I think the Member makes a good point about the role of bookshops, but, unfortunately, retail services are changing very rapidly and online sales of almost all retail products are having the knock-on effect that he mentions. We already have a very generous non-domestic rate relief scheme in Wales. I'm sure that most bookshops are of the size that they can take advantage of that. And I fear that the way that people shop for books and everything else has changed fundamentally and it will not be possible to roll that back.
However, I will say that a number of bookshops in my area—and, actually, the same area as Dai Lloyd's, and he'll be familiar with them—have been very successful in diversifying and holding a large number of other type of events inside the bookshop, and have cafes and groups and discussion groups and so on, and he will be as aware as I am of the success that some of those have had. I certainly applaud them, as I very much like attending a bookshop myself.