4. Statement by the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:21 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 3:21, 17 March 2020

Can I thank you, Minister, for the statements that you've made about Welsh Government's support for business? The details of these announcements, I'm sure, have been very comforting to the businesses in my constituency that have contacted me with their concerns, so I thank you also for the additional information you've set out today.

However, you probably won't be surprised to hear that the greatest number of businesses that have contacted me around their concerns are individual, self-employed businesses, and that's really where I want to focus my question, as I know other areas have been covered in some detail. So, if I could just give you an example: I had a constituent who's a professional musician and a music teacher. He's been in touch with me to say that, in the last 24 hours, he's lost the majority of his upcoming business due to the current Government advice, and in truth, we can only see that advice imposing further restrictions in the weeks ahead. And I guess there'll be similar circumstances that will arise for a number of self-employed individuals, and I'm thinking of people like mobile hairdressers, for instance—those types of businesses, where, as we know, business rates are not an issue for them and probably bank loans are not an issue for them. So, any announcements around those areas of assistance wouldn't be of particular help in those circumstances. Given that, as you've quite rightly already pointed out, the UK Government hasn't made any Macron-type announcement of €300 billion of support to guarantee that no businesses go under, what kind of assurance can you give to people in the position of my constituent as to what support they can expect to receive over the months ahead, given that their sources of income have basically been cut off virtually overnight?