1. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to support businesses in South Wales Central? OAQ54892

Llywydd, the actions of Business Wales, the Development Bank of Wales and the establishment of a dedicated regional office are amongst the steps taken by the Welsh Government to support businesses in South Wales Central.

Thank you for that update. One factor that has caused a lot of uncertainty for businesses in Wales is Brexit. Now, your party has just contested a general election on a policy of opposing Brexit. You have may have noted, First Minister, that this strategy did not work out very well for you. In fact, let's be honest, Labour got hammered. You weren't just beaten; you were annihilated. But, I see that, despite this, you are still talking about opposing Brexit here in the Assembly. Surely, for the sake of Welsh businesses, you now need to do your bit to end the uncertainty and support the UK Government's Brexit Bill. 

Well, Llywydd, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 31 January, and businesses will then find that Brexit is far from over, because, for months and years to come, we will continue to see the need to negotiate free trade agreements and other arrangements, both with the European Union and with other parts of the world. Anybody who believes that on 1 February, certainty will have replaced uncertainty, I'm afraid are going to be in for a very sad awakening. 

First Minister, I'm sure you'll join me in welcoming yesterday's news that Lloyds Banking Group expects to support firms in Wales this year by up to £1.1 billion in lending. This is part of their pledge to invest £18 billion in UK businesses in 2020, and they're looking at new businesses, microbusinesses seeking to upscale to small businesses, and those considering then trading internationally for the first time. 

When I speak to my constituents and business people, they do highlight the need to access reasonable commercial sources of funding. What are you doing to ensure that, where appropriate, Welsh Government sources and programmes are also taking into account the opportunities that exist for commercial partnerships in these programmes?

I thank David Melding for that question. It is interesting, isn't it, and I would expect he's had some of the same experience, that when you talk to commercial lenders, they tell you that there is no shortage of liquidity, and they set large sums of money aside for investment in businesses, and yet, when you talk to businesses, they often complain about how difficult it is to obtain the investment that they need to carry out the plans that they say would expand their business. 

So, part of what we do as a Government is to talk to the big lenders to try and persuade them that they have to find different ways of having conversations with people who are looking to borrow money to persuade them that their services are genuinely available to them.

Where big commercial lenders are not prepared to enter the market, that's why we have the Development Bank for Wales—£5.2 million spent in the last 12 months, Llywydd, helping 240 Welsh businesses with micro loans, of the sort that commercial lenders are not prepared to provide. So, the Welsh Government operates to try to be a broker between those who are looking for investment, and those who can provide it on a commercial basis, because where it can be commercially provided, that's what should be done, and where a commercial loan is unlikely to be forthcoming, then we try and use the instruments that we have available to fill those gaps in the market. 

First Minister, I recently met with the Federation of Small Businesses to discuss their report 'Are We There Yet?', which looks at how infrastructure spending in Wales can be best used to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. How is the Welsh Government prioritising this within its capital spend?

I thank Vikki Howells for that. It's an absolutely integral part of our capital expenditure programmes that we try and make sure that as much business as possible ends up in the hands of local suppliers and indigenous enterprises. To give you just one example, the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme has a track record of working with local suppliers, and has developed discrete sets of targets for local supply chain engagement in that programme—the biggest programme of investment in schools and colleges for 50 years, and a deliberate bias in favour of making sure that that Welsh public money ends up in Welsh businesses, creating further Welsh jobs.