We now move to item 8, which is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government on town centres—securing their future. Hannah Blythyn.

Thank you, acting Deputy Presiding Officer. I wanted to take the opportunity to update members on the £90 million transforming towns package announced in January and the written statement issued shortly before summer recess on support for our town centres to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

A sense of pride in place is at the heart of communities right across the country. Places for leisure, living, working and learning. Towns that match the needs of today whilst remaining rooted to their proud heritage. The pandemic has neither changed our commitment nor our ambition. If anything, it has reinforced and reignited it. But it has changed the circumstances and accelerated well-established trends like the growth of online sales and pressure on the retail sector.

We've also witnessed more positive changes, with a new appreciation of the green spaces and nature on our doorstep and reduced traffic, congestion and, consequently, emissions, alongside a shift towards shopping local and the rise in popularity of outdoor markets. We must lock in these positive changes. Creating green and clean communities, with improvements like the greening of public space, addressing drainage and improving air quality, is central to shaping the town centres of tomorrow.

The transforming towns green infrastructure support is enabling us to put this aspiration into action today, with 20 projects worth a total value of £9 million, like the scheme in Newtown that will redirect rainfall from high-street buildings and car parks through sustainable drainage systems and create rain gardens and landscaped areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic makes it even more important for us to put our transforming towns agenda into action now, and we are putting it into action, enabling town-centre adaptations to support current circumstances but that at the same time could offer an insight into different ways of driving footfall in the future—from outdoor seating, shelter and heating for cafes and pubs, and outdoor waiting areas for salons in Monmouthshire, to social distancing signage and adaptations in 10 Anglesey towns, to providing lighting and power for outdoor markets in Neath Port Talbot. Swansea local authority alone has received over 200 expressions of interest and has been, in their words, overwhelmed by the relief and positive feedback from local independent businesses.

The Vale of Glamorgan is targeting accessibility, active travel and green infrastructure with new cycle racks, storage, planters, seating, footway widening to create space for businesses, lighting improvements and moveable stalls. The focus is on Barry, Cowbridge, Llantwit Major and Penarth, linking with a marketing campaign, financed by our transforming towns revenue funding to aid the recovery of those town centres.

This revenue funding is being put to use by local authorities to market town centres, dial-up digital solutions, improve appearances and tackle empty properties.

We know that long-standing empty properties are a blight on our communities. That's why I've brought in an additional £15.2 million fund to ramp up enforcement and have provided a further £10 million in loan funding to support businesses to revitalise empty properties. Applications are now in for the loan funding from local authorities and the money will be allocated shortly. 

Supporting and securing the future of our towns in a way that brings benefits for our people, our places and our planet is a cross-Government priority. Whether it's the local sustainable transport fund promoting active travel solutions, support for major tourism initiatives, investment in landmark heritage projects, funding for community projects, or the local places for nature grants, towns across Wales are benefiting from cross-Government intervention.

COVID-19 means that we must be even more determined about putting into practice our town-centre-first principle, working collaboratively and in partnership both within and outside of Government. It will require a new way of working at the centre of Government. My colleagues in Welsh Government have agreed that town-centre first will be the lens through which every new idea will be considered. That is requiring new ways of working within Welsh Government and with our partners to ensure that we spot the creative opportunities to bring new economic opportunity and vibrancy back to the centre of our communities.

As well as boosting footfall and employment, town-centre locations bring environmental benefits, with opportunities for green infrastructure, both in terms of public spaces and places for reuse and repair, and co-location, reducing the reliance on long commutes and car journeys.

This Government has made clear its commitment to enabling people to work closer to home, working in a way that could improve both livelihoods and lifestyles. Co-working spaces or hubs co-located within town centres support regeneration and economic activity and underpins our town-centre-first approach. 

Over the years, as the way in which we work and live has changed, so has the way we use our town centres. To help us rise to the challenge of this change and recognising that it is not Government alone that has all the answers or a role to play, I have established the ministerial town-centre action group, with external expertise, supported by multidisciplinary regional action groups to identify and prioritise actions that will bolster our town centres in the short and long term. 

Community engagement and empowerment is central to this. This is not just about places but the people that make them, and it is only right that they shape their future. The action group will be prioritising this issue and we're also conducting a communications campaign to engage local businesses and communities and link with local authorities' marketing of their town centres.

We are all in no doubt that town centres across the UK face challenges. Here in Wales, supporting them through COVID-19 and into the future remains a priority for this Government. Our towns matter; they matter to me and they matter to people throughout Wales. They're not just centres of business and trade, important though that is, they are places that matter to us on a much more intrinsic level, places that are part of who we are and where we're from. Places that we all want to see not simply get by but come back better, reaffirming our pride in place to bring benefits for our local communities, economy and environment.

You refer to the £90 million transforming towns package announced in January and the written statement that you issued shortly before summer recess on support for our town centres to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Your written statement on 15 July, announcing a £9 million fund, stated that £5.3 million of this was from the transforming towns programme and £3.7 million from Valleys taskforce funding. Is this, therefore, new funding or part of the £90 million already announced in January?

The UK Government has announced a £3.6 billion towns fund to support towns across England. Although most of this funding came from UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government departmental spending for England, which did not, therefore, generate additional Barnett consequential funding for the Welsh Government, all of the funding for the towns fund in England is drawn from pots that will generate funding for the Welsh Government. Given that the Welsh Government will therefore make its own decisions on how to spend this, will you be spending at least an equivalent sum on transforming towns in Wales?

Small towns in Wales account for almost 40 per cent of the whole population of the country. Five of the 10 most deprived areas in Wales are located within towns, including Rhyl, Wrexham and Merthyr Tydfil. A Welsh Conservative Government would therefore establish a £200 million seaside town fund and market town fund to help regenerate Wales's local communities, which would help level up investment across Wales and, critically, enable communities to decide how the fund is to be invested within their local area.

How, therefore, would you respond to the statement by FSB Cymru, the Federation of Small Businesses, that we need a new approach for our high streets, including publishing town strategies in every town, ensuring the ownership is local, and businesses, voluntary and public sectors are engaged, establishing a property register where interventions often fail with absent or unidentifiable landlords, to build a basis for engagement, and rethinking the role of business rates in towns, replicating the English relief of high-street businesses?

Your statement in July stated that the £9 million fund would complement the Welsh Government's local sustainable transport fund and make it safer and easier for people to get around their local town. You also state today that the greening of public space, addressing drainage and improving air quality are central to shaping the town centres of tomorrow. How do you therefore respond to the call by the Royal National Institute of Blind People Cymru and Guide Dogs Cymru for the Welsh Government to ensure that people with sight loss, and other disabled people, are not unfairly disadvantaged by changes to the built environment, or any other measures taken in response to coronavirus?

Your statement in July also stated the £9 million fund would complement funding to support business improvement districts' running costs for three months. A business improvement district is where local businesses—[Inaudible.]—and work together with partners to form a group to invest money and make improvements to an area. However, when I checked the Welsh Government website today, it stated that there are currently only 16 business improvement districts in Wales that could only get—[Inaudible.]—support up to March 2020, is available for each proposed business improvement district area. So, what, please, can you update us, is the current position with them?

Finally, you state today that community engagement and empowerment is central to identifying and prioritising actions that will bolster our town centres, and that the ministerial town-centre action group will be prioritising this. When I questioned you about this in January, referring to the extensive work carried out by the Carnegie Trust on the enabling state and 'Turnaround Towns', which found the future of our towns is about more than just the high street, it's also about residents' access to levers of change and their ability to influence decisions, and that communities are best placed to bring a wealth of local knowledge and collective energy to the decisions that affect them, you replied:

'One of the things we are doing as part of this package is looking in terms of how we can take forward more of a communications approach with communities, to work with them, to actually talk about the support that we're talking about and get their input'.

So, finally, what concrete measures have you therefore put in place since January to make this happen? Diolch yn fawr.

Can I thank the Member for a number of questions and points that he made in response to the statement there? I'll try my best to endeavour to cover them as fully as I can. In respect of any consequentials, the Member was right, we did not receive any additional funding, but the £90 million that we've put in to our transforming towns by far dwarfs any consequentials that we get from the UK Government, and we are very much committed to supporting our town centres, as I outlined in this statement and prior to this. And although the transforming towns is a £90 million loan, this is not the only investment that is going into our towns; there's investment from across Government, from tourism, from Local Places for Nature and from a huge amount of things, not to mention the business support that has been enabled through the economic resilience fund.

The Member referred to FSB Cymru and their report and the comments they've made, and I made clear in my statement that I don't believe Government alone has all the answers, all the suggestions, for how we rise to the challenge. And I very much welcome that FSB Cymru, along with other partners and stakeholders, are part of the ministerial action group that is helping with taking us forward in terms of, actually, how we address a number of priority challenges within Wales when it comes to our town centres. That engagement with communities is part of it, because, actually, for something to succeed, the community needs to be part of shaping that and to continue and take it forward. One of the means I'm looking to do is actually making sure that community and town councils, who are often embedded in the local communities through various roles that they play, are actually able to access and have greater influence in terms of the local authority and in accessing support for their towns themselves.

I did mention in the statement, if the Member recalls, about a communication campaign, and this would be looking at a pilot in a number of areas, in geographically spread areas right across Wales, on actually how we better pilot ways of engaging with people to not only talk about the investment that has happened, but make sure they shape any investment in the future.

The Member specifically referred to towns in north Wales such as Rhyl and Wrexham, and, to all Members, I am more than happy to supply a more detailed exhibition map in terms of what investment is going into those towns and across Wales.

I thank the Deputy Minister very much for her statement. As she says, our towns are very important to us, and I'm sure that she'd agree with me that the crisis has highlighted just how important local communities are, but that we will also be perhaps using our towns and our town centres in different ways, partly as a result of the crisis.

The Deputy Minister mentions in her statement opportunities for more local shopping, and, while I'm sure that that is the case, it's also true, for example, that many people have moved towards online shopping rather than shopping directly at all. So, I'm wondering what assessment the Deputy Minister has made or could make of the sorts of businesses that people are currently using more of in our town centres and might be persuaded to use more of as we move forward, because I think it's important that we target encouragement and support at those businesses that are most likely to be successful.

The Deputy Minister mentioned local working hubs. I was very glad to hear her mention those. I wonder if she can say a little bit more in her response to me about how that work is developing. Who does she see developing those hubs? Is that a job for local authorities, is it local co-operatives? I wonder if she has had any discussions with some of the large employers. We've seen big employers in Cardiff, for example, like Admiral and Lloyds, have their staff working from home. For some people, they'll want to continue working from home; many of them would like to work more locally. Is there a role for those big companies, potentially, in investing in that kind of local working hub in some of our Valleys towns, for example?

The Minister makes some references to re-purposing of public spaces that has already happened, but I know that she's very aware that there's a very complex regulatory regime around changing how public spaces are used, and I wonder if she can reassure us that she is working with colleagues across Government to make it easier for local authorities to make those changes, always bearing in mind, of course, the caveat that Mark Isherwood has mentioned about needing to make sure that any of those changes do not create difficulties for disabled people, or, indeed, parents with prams.

I wonder if she's given any consideration to what further might be able to be done to enable more people to actually live in our town centres. She'll be aware of the work that was done recently, in the last couple of years, by Carmarthenshire County Council, where they purchased some disused big shops in the town centre, broke them into smaller units and then converted the spaces above those shops into flats that are now used, and, of course, that means that people are in the town centre, they're using local shops when they can, using local pubs and cafes, and I wonder if the Minister would join me in congratulating Carmarthenshire for that and whether she thinks that's an approach that might be used further.

Finally, and with thanks for your indulgence, acting Presiding Officer, I wonder what further consideration the Deputy Minister and her colleagues have given to the impact of the business rates regime on, particularly, small businesses in the town centres and whether any further work needs to be done to encourage particularly new and innovative small businesses to get off the ground, some of which might be deterred by the business rates regime as it is, and whether there is further work that she and her colleagues across Government could do in that regard.

I absolutely agree with the Member's comments with regard to how the importance and the role of local communities has been really brought to the fore during the past six months or so, and how many people have gone above and beyond, whether they be volunteers or whether they be small businesses, diversifying not just to support their businesses, but to support the more vulnerable in the local community as well.

In terms of actually—. The Member raises a really good point in terms of, actually, that analysis of those local businesses within town centres and how they are managing to diversify. Our revenue funding through our transforming towns funding has enabled local authorities to work with town centres in terms of their digital offer. I think that's really important—it's a really important area of work moving forward, enabling those smaller, independent businesses to increase what they can do online, whether that be actually adjusting to COVID—we have seen it accelerated during the pandemic—whether that's adjusting to, actually, just having some kind of online, web, presence, or offering things like a call and collect or a click and collect service. So, digital in terms of actually how we support small, independent businesses but also town centres as a whole in terms of, actually, that digital can be used to improve the offer and to actually manage footfall and promote footfall within town centres as well.

The Member talks about the repurposing of public spaces and the need to work across Government in terms of actually how we make that accessible, but in a way, as she said, that takes into account the points that the Member, Mark Isherwood, raised with regard to not creating extra hurdles or burdens to access town centres. Absolutely we recognise this is not—as I said in the statement, this is not something for one area of Government or one portfolio alone, and it's not just something for Government alone. We need to work right across Government and we are doing so, and not just within Government, but with local authority partners and the third sector, and those right across the public sector and private sector too, which, as she says, is absolutely crucial in terms of actually how we take forward identifying these co-working hubs right across towns in Wales. She mentioned about Valleys towns, and I'm absolutely committed and keen to making sure that a wide range of towns, and the people that live in those towns, get to reap the benefits of this agenda moving forward. One of the steps that we're taking as a Government that I've asked officials to action is to actually get a clearer understanding of where public sector property is within towns, to offer that leverage to take this agenda forward.

Thank you for your statement, Deputy Minister, on this particularly important subject. Over the years we've had various initiatives rolled out to regenerate our run-down and depleted town centres, and indeed 70 per cent of our constituents said that regenerating our towns should be a Government priority. Obviously, no-one yet has all the answers, but strategic and creative regeneration and repurposing solutions are going to be one of the keys to unlock successful and vibrant town centres. Should the Welsh Government think more locally and rebuild our town-centre communities into something that embraces diversification and experience and successfully meshes new mixed uses into the existing retail and town centre context? Regeneration will require a more co-operative relationship between governance, landlords and tenants, and a whole new commercial development model, where funding institutions will have to accept and engage with the new reality. What is the Welsh Government doing to facilitate these new interactions?

One of the key enablers to town-centre regeneration is, of course, connectivity. People not only have to have a desire to go to the town, but they must have an ability to get there. Unfortunately, bus services—a crucial factor in connectivity—rather than growing, even discarding COVID, are contracting. Again, if town centres are to be successful, they must be accessible as well as having the diversity, the services and other things that they offer. What is the Welsh Government doing to make sure that bus companies keep vital routes open to our town centres?

And one last point, Deputy Minister: high-street banks—which, of course, is now becoming a misnomer—must be made accountable, because they have abandoned those businesses that once made them wealthy and profitable. What is the Welsh Government doing to remind banks of their social responsibilities in supporting town centres?

The Member raises the need for diversification, and he's absolutely right—there is no one-size-fits-all solution to actually reinvigorating and regenerating our town centres. Whilst retail remains important, our towns can't survive on a retail offer alone. So, as I said in the statement, it's about shopping, it's about living, it's about leisure and it's about work as well. We've committed in the past, and continue to do so, to increase the opportunities for town-centre living, whether that be homes above shops or creating houses within or just on the edge of town centres, as a way not only of increasing footfall but actually giving people that access to those facilities on their doorstep as well. I think, as we move forward, we will see, with the change in working patterns as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, the need to actually look not just at co-working hubs, but around developing premises for people to be able to live and work within town-centre locations.

The Member talked about the need to—the connectivity for our towns as well, and that's connectivity not just in, as we talked about before, digital, but actually being able to physically get into our town centres. And I'm pleased there's work going on right across the country, and particularly in Pontypridd, about actually how we better connect, in the first instance, the train station with the centre of the town, when you leave the station, but, clearly, buses are key to the vast majority of people across Wales, my constituents included. That's why I'm working very closely with my colleagues the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, and the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, to ensure that we better connect our communities to help support our town centres not only to survive but to thrive, and enable more people to access them in a way that actually works for them but also, of course, could bring those broader environmental benefits as well. 

Can I thank you, Deputy Minister, for the town centre funds that the Welsh Government has allocated in recent weeks? But one issue that I've been seeking further clarification on is the use of these funds in smaller centres outside of the main town centre of Merthyr Tydfil, in my constituency. For example, local centres like Rhymney, Merthyr Vale, Quaker's Yard, Cefn Coed and Dowlais—they're all communities in their own right, with high streets, shops, restaurants, accommodation, pubs and cafes, yet not apparently qualifying for support as they don't meet the narrow town-centre criteria or definition required for receipt of funding. So, could you tell me what flexibility local authorities have to use these funds for businesses, empty properties, environmental schemes and the like, not based within the definition of that main town centre, as it was my understanding that the additional money from the Valleys taskforce was meant to help plug that gap? 

I thank Dawn Bowden for her questions. She's right to raise the investment that is going into Merthyr Tydfil, and will continue to do, and also the importance of those communities that serve—the smaller communities that are vital to the people who live in and around them as well. In terms of actually who qualifies for it and how that money is allocated, in terms of the town-centre prioritisation, traditionally decisions have been made on a regional basis by the local authorities, but what we have done with the town-centre adaptation grant is make sure that it is available to any town prioritised by the relevant local authority. Welsh Government did consult the local authorities on the scheme and responded to the request that there should be the flexibility to broaden the support to any towns. 

The funding comes from our transforming towns programme, so, in line with that, our funding is squarely aimed at town centres, as confirmed in the grant guidance, but it's for the local authorities themselves to define what constitutes the town centre. But, clearly, I'm more than happy to, as we take forward this work in terms of investing in those smaller towns throughout Wales—. And if the Member has specific queries or issues she wants to raise with me, then I would very much invite her to put that in writing to me.

We've all been familiar, particularly some of us representing the south Wales Valleys, with the challenges facing town centres over many years. We've seen not only online trading having an impact in eroding the viability of many retail offers, but we've also seen the growth of cities taking away the opportunities for smaller towns to compete. But the pandemic, in the way that it's worked, of course, has created a real crisis in cities as well, and has created a crisis where there may well be new opportunities now for towns that didn't exist six months ago, and I'm interested as to what the Welsh Government is doing in order to stimulate the creativity and the ambition for towns and town centres. If I look at the towns in my constituency, whether it's Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Brynmawr or Abertillery, as well as the smaller communities that Dawn Bowden has already described, I'm not seeing the level of support from the local authority that I would want to see. I've met and discussed the situation facing our town centres with local government, and I'm disappointed in the response that I'm seeing from them. But I'm not seeing much creativity, quite frankly, from Welsh Government either, and I'm quite disappointed with the approach that Welsh Government is taking at the moment, because we have a tremendous opportunity here to lead thinking, to lead creativity, to change our futures, and to shape these places that are at the heart of all of our different communities. This is an opportunity, I think, for Welsh Government to demonstrate what the Government can do that local government isn't able to do at the moment, and that—

Thank you, Alun. We are running out of time. Minister.

Thank you, acting Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm afraid I have to start by saying that I understand the frustration when it comes to the situation with their towns within their local area, but I absolutely reject the Member's assertion that the Welsh Government is not being ambitious in this area. I'm absolutely committed to driving creativity, to working with the town centre action group to take action in our communities across Wales. But I also recognise that Welsh Government doesn't have all the answers or all the ideas. I would encourage Members to come forward to work with us on those ideas and suggestions from communities within your constituencies to see how we can manage to shape and reinvigorate our town centres as we move forward.

In terms of the role for local authorities, again, as I said to Dawn Bowden, I would obviously encourage you to continue that dialogue. If there are specific issues you wish to raise, then please do so in writing to me. But one of the things I am keen to do, as I mentioned in the statement, is actually how we better enable communities to be part of that process because I really genuinely think that for something to succeed in the longer term, then communities need to have a say in shaping their own towns and their own centres where they live and work. One of the means, I think, to do that is to actually work a lot closer, and we have done this with the town centre adaptation fund to encourage town and community councils to be part of that process as well. I would welcome other means of looking at how we can be bring the communities on board to actually shape that in the future as we drive this forward, because it is absolutely right; we have an opportunity here now to actually make sure that our towns are able to not just survive during the pandemic, but to thrive post it.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for your statement today. I'm particularly interested in the detail of the empty properties aspect. I'd like some more detail on that. I know that local authorities are able to apply for that, but could you give us a bit more information about any criteria associated with it? So, for example, is it just for retail or could it be for mixed use such as housing? Because I particularly think that smaller housing units within the town centre are a really good way to revitalise them in the long term.

My second and final question is around the ministerial town centre action group that you are setting up. I very much welcome this, particularly the inclusion of not just politicians and officials, but people who have actual real-life experience of town centres, whether that be businesses or town centre management, et cetera. So, again, I'm looking for a little more information on that, really, just with regard to who is sitting on that group and their experience, their expertise and whether, crucially, they represent the diverse nature of Wales geographically and culturally. Thank you. 

Can I thank Vikki Howells for her question and her interest? I know she's very passionate about this agenda and this area in serving her constituents. In terms of the empty properties, I guess there are two elements and I'm not specifically clear which one the Member has referred to, so I'll do my best to try and address both. One is whether it's for mixed use or just for retail, well, actually, in terms of the loans and support for local authorities, then that is for mixed use—it's not specifically addressed to retail—and we've seen numerous really innovative projects happening across Wales, where empty properties have been converted to create really lovely decent homes for people within town centres, which not only creates these new homes but adds to, hopefully, increasing the vibrancy of those towns as well.

In addition to that, we also have the empty property enforcement fund, which is one of the funds I announced back in January, and we've added further support to that. We have brought in an industry expert to help support local authorities in terms of how they take forward that enforcement work, because what we found previously, perhaps, with the impact of austerity and not necessarily having that expertise to actually take that forward, and to actually support local authorities to have the confidence to press ahead with that. Despite the pandemic, we have been working closely with local authorities for them to identify at least about three properties per local authority. We could probably guess at the ones that our postbags are often full about, or, you know, if you're on the street, people are complaining that it's been there for years and why aren't we doing something with it. It's obviously often been very difficult, for numerous reasons, for local authorities to address that and take it forward. So, there is a movement forward, but unfortunately at this point I'm not able to give the detail on some of them—the specifics—because of commercial confidentiality, but I can assure the Member and other Members that as soon as we are able to share that information I most certainly will do so with Members.

In terms of the town centre action group, it's already established. We're on to our third meeting now and, like I said, I've been impressing on members that I want the emphasis on the action from that. There was a diverse range of stakeholders involved with that, and it's not just confined to those members of the group. We've had people coming from a diverse range of areas to offer their insight and ideas to help us shape our action from that group. Additionally, as I said in the statement, it is underpinned by regional action groups. The regional action groups are actually bringing forward those issues on the ground to make sure they're part of the action we take, perhaps, on a national level across Wales. And there are a number of themes coming out of that, whether that be things such as—. We've talked about how we offer a vision of what some of these empty properties or places could be used for. So, perhaps creating the opportunity for what we'd call 'meanwhile spaces'—we offer that vision. We're looking at could every town in the future be a market town, and also for the work around community engagement. So, I'd be more than happy to share with Members more details about the action group, both its membership and its work as it goes forward.

And for the concluding question, once again, Mick Antoniw.

Thank you, acting Llywydd. Minister, Pontypridd is one of those classic examples of a town that was regenerating with Welsh Government and local council support: the new buildings; Transport for Wales being based there; the new bridge over, connecting with Ynysangharad Park; and the bingo hall, which has been acquired now by RCT to be developed. Of course, then we had the flooding. And then as we recovered from the flooding, we had COVID. So, it has been a very, very difficult time for a town that was really on the cusp of regeneration.

Now, we're getting back to looking at that again. There are two aspects that I'd really like your comments on. The first one is that change in habits: people cooking more fresh food, et cetera, during COVID period. There's a fantastic market in Pontypridd. What can we do to actually specifically support those venues, those businesses that are providing fresh, local produce to our community? Because I think there's an opportunity to really regenerate interest.

And the other one is that our towns should become centres of culture as well. In Pontypridd, we have Clwb y Bont, which is a Welsh language centre, very badly affected by flooding, but real opportunities to develop the arts, music, culture, Welsh language venues and so on, and too many of our grants are in silos. I think we have to start connecting these together to actually provide a broad vision for a town: cultural produce, natural produce, and also the regeneration of businesses and offices and so on. What sort of support is there for that, and what additional support could be given to organisations like Pontypridd business improvement district in the town, who've done so much to pull it together, but with additional resources could really make an even greater impact than they are at the moment?

If I respond to the points around Pontypridd BID and the role that they played in significantly driving forward the regeneration of Pontypridd town centre. We've talked previously about the importance of having that literal buy-in on the ground from people that live and work there to ensure the success of any regeneration project for a town or a community. We're committed to continue to support BIDs as a vehicle for driving that change or ways in which we can empower local business forums and community organisations. As well, we have provided support for BIDs to get through the COVID period, recognising the challenges they may face, and I'm happy to explore that work further with BIDs where they are taking forward really good work and are driving forward change in their communities.

The Member raises the various challenges that Pontypridd has faced over the past year, the regeneration that was really taking hold and then the challenges faced by both the flooding and now the pandemic, but I think there's absolutely huge potential there in Pontypridd given the investment that's already gone in and continues to go in.

On the kind of buying local and shopping local and the link to where your food comes from and fresh food, I think one of things I've started seeing now within Government is actually—as Mick said—how we better join that up. So by buying local, if you're buying from a market you're probably more likely to not use excess packaging as well, and you see people thinking about the resources we consume, not just within our food but also the waste that we can produce as well. I think we've seen more opportunities coming forward both within our direct transforming towns funding, but also things like our circular economy fund, with organisations, public bodies and businesses coming forward in terms of actually how they can reduce packaging as part of that offer, part of the town centre offer that is different, that gives them that draw to bring people in and increase footfall.

I think the Member absolutely makes the point, actually, we've seen—and I've seen it myself in my own constituency—almost the comeback of the market and the rise in popularity of the market again. Well, that's because people feel safer shopping outdoors at the moment in the current circumstances, but also actually seeing the quality of the product and knowing that they're supporting the local community. So, much of what we've seen through some of the adaptation funding and the transforming towns funding, that can be facilitated through local authorities to support things such as local market initiatives moving forward. I know that it's one of the areas that the action groups have already identified as a key area to take forward if we can drive the idea and the action of every town in Wales as a market town.

Thank you, Deputy Minister.