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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 6 May 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 3:14, 6 May 2020

Llywydd, can I thank Helen Mary Jones for her questions, and again for, on a regular basis, offering ideas and also flagging up concerns that, hopefully, we've been able to address during the course of the pandemic?

Helen Mary has highlighted a number of areas of concern regarding the gaps that have emerged in terms of the support that is being offered, and one of those concerns is bed-and-breakfast businesses that pay council tax rather than business rates. This is one specific area that we're looking at as part of the next phase of support through the economic resilience fund.

And in terms of the timescale for announcing that second phase, work, as I've mentioned, is ongoing. I expect to receive advice and options within the coming week. An announcement will then be made swiftly following that. It's been helpful that we've been able to factor into our considerations the additional sum that will come as a consequential from the UK Government's top-up of the non-domestic rates grant scheme.

What is absolutely vital, though, I should say to Members, is that we retain some firepower for the actual recovery stage as we look to make strategic investments in our economy. We can't use up all of our resource in the response; we have to retain some investment for the recovery period. 

And in terms of the recovery, Helen Mary is absolutely right: we need to give people confidence, whether it's employees or whether it's customers of businesses; we need to give them confidence that they can access goods and services in a safe way. And we are giving consideration, as part of the work on working safer, to the application of some form of certification—a kite mark, if you like, here in Wales that could offer up an opportunity for that guidance to be self-enforced by customers and by workers.

We're working with the Wales Trade Union Congress and we'll also be working very closely with the Welsh Local Government Association to ensure that sufficient capacity and systems are operational to guarantee that that guidance is being adhered to. The Wales TUC, in particular, has been very helpful in contributing to the importance of the social distancing regulations within the workforce, being able to provide us with examples and instances of concerns that have been raised with their members, and we've followed up each and every one of those reports. So, hopefully, our enforcement programme that has been in place since those regulations were introduced can be carried on after we begin the recovery period.