5. Statement by the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd: Fiscal implications for Wales of the impact of, and response to, COVID-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 13 May 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 4:44, 13 May 2020

The shared prosperity fund and the city deal—both city deals—will be crucial in terms of the recovery as we move out of the immediate impacts of the crisis, and those discussions of course are ongoing. The Federation of Small Businesses today published an important document about how we can support small businesses, and they recognise actually the huge potential of the shared prosperity fund as well. We're having those discussions with the UK Government, or at least trying to. We don't seem to have any clarity on information, but we're certainly making the cases that we've discussed many times before, and also continuing those discussions and continuing to listen to stakeholders, who see the shared prosperity fund as being an important lever for the future as well. 

In terms of local government, we're really aware that cash flow is a particular issue for them, so the Minister for Housing and Local Government has been providing advanced payments and early payments to local authorities to help them with some of that cash flow that they're facing. We also have put in place the £110 million hardship fund for local authorities, and they will draw down that funding as they spend it, but it does give those local authorities the confidence to spend in those areas of free school meal provision, for example, additional funding for social care and the other areas where we've agreed funding, so that they can have the confidence and the freedom to make the decisions that they need to without having to undertake onerous paperwork before accessing that funding.