1. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 5 August 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 5 August 2020

Llywydd, can I thank Carwyn Jones for those points? He's absolutely right: right across the world we have seen that to reopen a setting is one thing, to persuade people to return to it is another. That is why in Wales we've put such a lot of emphasis on building up the experience of doing things successfully, because where people can see that their well-being is being properly thought of and mitigation measures are properly in place, then I believe we will see a build-up of return in the economy, and we certainly want to see that here in Wales, but it does depend upon the confidence of individuals growing as businesses demonstrate a success.

Carwyn Jones is right as well, Llywydd, to point to the fact that, for many sectors, by October, coronavirus will not be over, as far as an economic crisis is concerned. I fully understand why the Chancellor cannot go on providing a furlough scheme where businesses are able to get back to what was previously normal, but what we have put consistently to the UK Government is that they shouldn't regard the end of furlough as a blunt instrument—that it should be a tailored scheme, in which those sectors that will need some continued support design that support with the UK Government to allow those businesses to emerge from coronavirus and to be successful businesses again in the future. I think that's in the interest of the economy. I think that it's an investment that the Chancellor should be prepared to make, not simply to regard it as a further expenditure, because those businesses are the taxpaying businesses of the future, and some help for them beyond October will put them into that position later next year.

We make those points whenever we can, in conversations with the Prime Minister, in the finance quadrilaterals that my colleague Rebecca Evans attends, in the meetings that Ken Skates, as the Minister for the economy, has with his counterparts—a tailored approach to the scheme, rather than what is currently planned: a blunt and rapid end to it, in a way that will damage businesses that are just beginning to get back on their feet.