Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 13 February 2019.
I thank the Deputy Minister for his answer. We are very good in some places at being able to help people start up businesses. In my constituency, and particularly in Port Talbot, we have sufficient numbers of start-up units available for businesses to get into and spend their first year or two as they start to develop and grow. But what we are finding is, as they want to grow and expand, the next size of units—the 5,000 sq ft type of units—we're short of, and therefore businesses tend to actually expand and leave the area as a consequence of that. Now, it may be that this is down to the responsibility of local authorities—I appreciate the concept—but what are you doing to work with local authorities to ensure that we're able to ensure that businesses can start, grow, stay, and expand the workforce and keep the employment in the areas?