7. Will the First Minister provide an update on the latest block grant drawn down from the UK Government? OQ55435

I thank the Member for that question. Alongside many Whitehall departments, the Welsh Government has drawn down repayable cash from the UK contingencies fund. In our case, £857 million has been used to front-load our actions to support businesses and public services in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you, First Minister. Apologies for the rather dry phrasing of the question, but you got my drift. First Minister, as you say, the UK Government has just signed off the draw-down of the £857 million and the Welsh Government budget has been significantly uplifted since the start of the pandemic, and rightly so. As the focus now turns to leaving lockdown and getting the economy moving again, will you look at providing support for the housing market and particularly first-time buyers? It's likely in the statement today that the Chancellor will be announcing a possible stamp duty holiday—certainly stamp duty relief for buyers. Is that something you will be considering here? My colleague Laura Anne Jones in her question earlier spoke about possible distortions along the border with regard to COVID-19 processes. There would be no greater distortion than that to the housing market if there's greater relief provided for stamp duty in England than there is for land transaction tax here in Wales, so will you pledge to look at this?

Well, Llywydd, it's just important to say that the £857 million is repayable cash; it's not money that we can use to invest in Wales. And while I want to recognise the help we had through the Secretary of State and through the Treasury in securing that, let's put it in context: the Department of Health and Social Care in Whitehall has drawn down £25 billion of repayable cash from the contingencies fund, so we are rather at the small-change end of that market.

Llywydd, we will wait to see what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to say today. Our stamp duty, our land transaction tax regime in Wales, already absolves far, far more people from paying that tax in Wales than would be the case across our border, so if the Member would want to regard that as a distortion, then it is a distortion very much in favour of his constituents in living this side of the border. But what we've learnt, Llywydd, over many years, is never to rely on the headlines that the Treasury trail in advance of any statement. We will wait to hear what the Chancellor of the Exchequer has to say. We will look at ways in which Wales will lose money as well as ways in which we may gain, and then the Cabinet here will come to a set of conclusions based in the round on the impact of any changes that may be announced today on the budget and on policies here in Wales.

And, finally, question 8—Jenny Rathbone.