8. Will the First Minister outline the Welsh Government's plans for the regeneration of high streets in North Wales? OQ56211

Llywydd, our transforming towns programme in north Wales is focused on supporting the vibrancy of our town centres, making them fit for the twenty-first century, enabling job creation and improving community facilities. Working closely with local authority partners, projects worth over £39 million are being delivered over the period between 2018 and 2021.

Thank you. First Minister, many high street shops have gone and they are unlikely to ever return. The loss of Debenhams and the Arcadia Group brands and the jobs attached to the physical stores is being felt very keenly across north Wales. The pandemic has resulted in a moratorium on business rates, which, in turn, will result in the lowering of tax revenue for local authorities. Is it now time for a radical rethink of a business rates regime that has been seen as a limiting influence on business start-ups and their sustainability, and to look at something that reflects modern shopping habits, like a small online sales tax?

I thank the Member for that contribution. It follows on from the discussion that I was having with Adam Price earlier this afternoon. A sales tax is another option, Mandy Jones is right, that can be considered as part of a repertoire of things that could be introduced to replace the business rates system alongside the domestic council tax system. 

Our town centres will need real imagination in the way that they recover from the pandemic. They need to be supported in that by a UK tax regime that takes taxes from those who trade online, and who now largely escape that, whereas somebody on the high street has to make their contribution. In the short run, we go on providing our small business rate relief, which provides significant rate relief for a very large number of particularly small businesses here in Wales. There is a longer run programme of reform, both in terms of business rates, but also in the nature of the high street in the future, and I agree with the Member that thinking about that needs to begin now, and needs to include as many imaginative ideas as can be brought to the table.

Thank you, First Minister.