Economic Development in the Heads of the Valleys

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:40, 17 March 2020

Well, I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for that and I heard, indeed, from my colleague, Jane Hutt, of the meeting that she and he attended in Cowbridge yesterday. What yesterday's announcement makes clear, Llywydd, is that every penny that has comes to Wales through the UK Government for business support will be spent for those purposes here in Wales. 

We took a major decision in relation to business rate relief, and that has taken the bulk of the money that has come to Wales. We remain in discussion with the Treasury about the use of the Barnett formula, as the way to distribute that resource across the United Kingdom, because we have more than the ordinary share of small businesses in particular in Wales, and we are putting the argument to the Treasury that the way that funding is distributed should reflect the realities of need on the ground, rather than a formula, which everybody has agreed, is long past its effective use. 

What we have left out of the sum of money that came in the budget, when we've made the decisions on business rate relief, is just over £100 million. We hope that that sum will go up as a result of our discussions with the Treasury, but we are in discussions this week with businesses, and my colleague, Ken Skates, particularly, meeting the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Directors, the Chambers of Commerce, Road Haulage Association and so on in order to get a strong sense from them about the most effective way in which that £100 million can be deployed. 

If there is no further money, we will make decisions about the deployment of the £100 million as fast as we can. We thought that it was right to make sure that the voice of businesses is directly put to us, so that if there are better ideas than the ones we already have in the mix, we learn them from them, make the decisions thereafter and get the money from us into the hands of people who need it.