I appreciate that this statement has been curtailed today due to time constraints, so I'll be succinct. We are clearly heading through very challenging times as a country, both in terms of public health and financially, as the finance Minister has just alluded to, and challenging times require a budget that makes the most of every Welsh pound. Now, despite the Minister's rather negative view—at one point, anyway—of revenue spending being down on 2010-11, the pandemic has, of course, meant that Welsh Government spending has increased considerably, by 4.6 per cent in cash terms, to over £22 billion.

I do think, in responding to this debate, it would be good to have some clarity from the Minister on this issue about unallocated funding, which has been raised both earlier today and over the last few days. It's less than clear to me why only £77 million of the coming year's funding allocation has yet to be allocated, and there remain concerns that £1 billion of COVID-19 funding from this year has not been spent either—as I said, an issue that was raised earlier. So, if we could hear from the Minister on what's going on there, that would be helpful.

Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for a recovery plan for Wales, not just to see Wales through the current COVID-19 pandemic, but also to deliver the public services that Wales needs in the future, and to see a transformational change in those public services. Now, you know we talk a lot in this Chamber—and, indeed, this virtual Chamber, and the Minister did earlier—about building back better and building back greener, all of which I agree with, but words are, of course, easy. The question is: does this budget provide the much-needed financial revolution and recovery plan for the Welsh economy? And I think the jury is still out on that. 

Turning to the taxation changes in the draft budget, business rates here continue to be some of the highest in the UK, with smaller businesses paying similar proportions to larger businesses. Land transaction tax for non-domestic properties remains unchanged, from what I can gather, whilst the decision to change LTT for houses valued between £180,000 to £210,000 back to the pre-pandemic levels of 3.5 per cent does raise concerns in the housing sector. And I'm sure the Minister, like me, wants to help first-time buyers—we want to help people get into the housing market—so I'd like to hear from you about how this budget will help achieve that.

As the Minister mentioned in her statement, the UK Government has provided the Welsh Government with an extra £5.2 billion to tackle COVID-19 over the last nine months, on top of previous increases. So, I think the spending box has clearly been ticked, but I think what is still lacking to a certain extent is a more creative and targeted approach to deliver a recovery plan for Wales, and I think that must be our long-term objective as a Senedd.

So, we need a budget that will enable Wales to build back better and deliver a brighter future. Yes, tackling climate change must be central to this. Welsh Conservatives would like to see the better transport system that the Minister spoke about, and, of course, the pandemic has shown that we don't need to be so reliant on physical transport infrastructure in the future as we have been in the past, with more people working from home. But that can only work in the medium and long term if Wales's broadband infrastructure is upgraded, particularly in rural areas. 

On the subject of business, while financial support in this budget is welcome, it's vital that we get support to businesses quickly. The hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors have been particularly badly affected by the last year, as we all know, and we certainly don't want to see a repeat of any poor roll-out of the economic relief fund, the phase 3 development grant, where we saw the development grant suspended hours after it was opened, due to the number of applicants.

So, I'd like the Minister to see more innovative methods to support businesses in Wales. Welsh Conservatives want to see investments in our small and medium-sized enterprises, the bedrock of our economy, but it is easy to criticise, isn't it, and I recognise that. What are the alternatives? Well, I could propose a COVID community development programme, business rate-free zones, which could involve three years of free rates, allowing them to invest in their workforce. So, I would urge the Minister to look at all of these opportunities as we go forward to try and build a more creative and dynamic economy as we come out of lockdown.

You've mentioned that you're investing £5 million, Minister, in upskilling and retraining low-income workers, but is it the case that there's been a real-terms cut to some employer education schemes? I'm thinking about the employability and skills budget as well, which seems to have taken a cut. So, isn't that counter-productive? And what about cuts to the economic infrastructure development budget, including real-terms cuts to ICT infrastructure operations? If we want to build back better and build back greener, then we need to make sure that that green infrastructure is there. 

And finally, Llywydd, if I have some time, turning to the WRIT, you have reiterated that the WRIT will remain the same for the rest of this Senedd, so that's reassuring. However, we still don't have a reassurance that that tax will not change after the election. I'm sure that you won't tell us today, because that's all in the pipeline of the Welsh Labour manifesto, I'm sure, but if we could have some guidance on when we can expect to have announcements about future tax changes. This is a new and innovative area for the Welsh Government, and it's important that we get all of this right at the outset, so that we're not playing catch-up later on. But, yes, let's build back greener and build back better.