5. How is the Welsh Government supporting business recovery in north Wales? OQ56348

Well, further to my answer to Mark Isherwood, in north Wales, we've also provided over 2,500 businesses with £44.1 million of support under phases 1 and 2 of the economic resilience fund, safeguarding more than 20,000 jobs in north Wales. In north Wales, we've also provided £1.1 million to 472 start-up businesses.

Thank you, Minister. Can I say thank you, diolch, for your responses whenever I've raised scrutiny and challenging questions with you, and also for your fair approach? Whenever I've raised any issues with you regarding transport or other issues within Aberconwy, you've always been very fair.

The latest round of the economic resilience fund will see £30 million targeted at hospitality businesses with 10 or more employees. As our colleague Helen Mary said, it's 10 or more employees—and Mark Isherwood raised it also—what about those who have five or six employees? How did you draw the line? Also, can you explain the difference between businesses employing nine and 10 people, especially the confusion that's arisen?

I've had a few tourism forums, Minister, and there's some confusion about the additional £150 million that's going to be made available through non-domestic rates grants. You've confirmed to date that this will only be extended if restrictions are extended on 12 March, and that's causing some great uncertainty with those businesses. They really do need to know now whether there's any likelihood of them opening up over Easter, or is it going to be April or is it going to be May. Because these businesses really need to plan. There's been mention of us moving to alert level 3 after 12 March, and level 3, of course, is a confirmed case rate of more than 150 cases per 100,000 people. But the latest rolling seven-day average is 57 cases per 100,000. This is putting huge expectation on these business owners now. So, I'd be really grateful if you could make a clear statement on that.

And my final point: there's been a lot of anti-visitor rhetoric, I'm afraid, and in our tourism industry, 80 per cent of their industry, tourism business, comes from over the border in England, hence why they want to see a levelling up of reopening levels. What steps can you take, Minister, working with Visit Wales, to ensure that those messages are completely eradicated, and that when we are reopen for business, we are very welcoming and we say a large 'croeso' to anybody coming from over the border here to north Wales and Aberconwy to enjoy their holidays?

Can I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for her very kind words and say that I've hugely enjoyed working with her? She may be a Member of the opposition to my party, but, equally, she's been very constructive and fair in the way that she's both scrutinised me and sought answers to questions.

Obviously, the next 21-day review is taking place next week, so businesses within tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors will learn about whether they'll be able to reopen in time for Easter. But, as I said on the previous question, what's essential is that any business that's reopening does so in a safe way. And should that £150 million need to be utilised to support businesses, then it will be beyond next week. It will give a guarantee to businesses of all sizes that they'll have support from Welsh Government with grants of up to £5,000 available for them. And that gives me assurance that, regardless of the outcome of the review next week, there will be an income, either through the form of a grant from Welsh Government, or through generating custom over the following weeks.

I would also agree with Janet Finch-Saunders that there should be no anti-visitor rhetoric. The message from Visit Wales throughout this pandemic has been, 'Visit Wales later'. We're keen to ensure that when it's safe for people to visit Wales again, then we will be throwing open our arms to maximise opportunities for businesses within Wales. But, of course, communities that rely on the visitor economy for employment have suffered incredibly badly during this pandemic, and that's why we've been so keen—and Dafydd Elis-Thomas as the excellent tourism Minister has been so keen to ensure that we've given the most generous package of support to tourism and the hospitality and leisure businesses anywhere in the United Kingdom.

And if I could just flag up a comparison between England and Wales: if you look at the maximum grant available to all businesses in England with a rateable value of less than £15,000, then it's £6,000; if you look at the equivalent in Wales for tourism and hospitality, it will be around £10,000. And that excludes, actually, the unique £180 million and £30 million additional funds that have been made available for hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses. So, in total, in Wales, we've undertaken two rounds of the restrictions fund since December, alongside two hospitality, leisure and tourism sector-specific funds, and, of course, prior to that, there was the business development fund—all of these funds available and utilised by great businesses in the tourism sector.

There's a lot of love being shared in this question session today; long may it continue—a lot of kindness. Jack Sargeant, the next question is yours.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and I'll join the praises from Members of the opposition to your approach to the economy, Minister, and to your commitment towards north Wales in particular, and I commend you for that. Now, we do need to build back stronger and greener, and be ambitious in our plans for recovery to create jobs in Deeside. This year, Shotton Steel turns 125, and I want it to be growing and employing people for the next 125 years. Now, this has to be a major employer for our future generations. I want to see Shotton Steel become the first carbon-neutral plant in the UK, and I want it to produce the steel for the green products of the future. So, Minister, will you continue your conversations with Tata Shotton about their logistics hub to supply green modular buildings of the future, and to support them in making the plants carbon neutral? 

Well, can I thank Jack Sargeant for his questions, and for his kind remarks as well? Yes, Members are being very kind today. It's making me wonder whether there's a conspiracy, whether all Members know something about my fate on 6 May with these kind words and tributes to be made, but it has been an absolute pleasure to work with Members over the past five years during my time in this role, and, of course, that's involved a focus on north Wales as the Minister for north Wales.

There are few companies that are as good as Tata in Shotton in terms of employment prospects and development of the workforce, and we're absolutely determined to secure a sustainable long-term future for the steel industry in Wales, including Tata Steel in Shotton, and we're working to make sure that we work with those businesses in developing plans that will meet the aspirations of our zero-carbon targets. And our new manufacturing plan, which was launched just last week, identifies some of the steps that are needed to decarbonise industry. I'm pleased that we're already participating in the £315 million industrial energy transformation fund, which provides capital investment in energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects. Tata has been invited to take part—I'm pleased to say—in a study evaluating the future skills needs of foundation industries, with a specific focus on decarbonisation, and this is being co-ordinated by Innovate UK as part of the UK's £150 million transforming foundation industries initiative. So, Tata are demonstrating a clear determination to make sure that they can undergo a safe transition.

And in terms of other opportunities for Shotton Steel, obviously, I was disappointed to learn that the Heathrow logistics hub work is not going ahead as intended. I know that Tata Steel were looking forward to working on that. However, we fully support Tata Steel's ambitions of developing its own logistics hub at Shotton, and my officials are working very closely with the company to explore the options for opening up the third access road, which will be so important in the development of a hub.