8. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales on efforts to encourage local authorities to support local economies in north Wales? OQ56412

I regularly discuss the role and work of local authorities in supporting local economies and their communities with the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales and colleagues across Government. 

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Tourism, of course, as you will know, is usually worth around £900 million to the economy of Conwy county annually. That resource has been almost completely wiped out, and Conwy county has seen one of the highest furlough take-up rates in Wales. On the ground, the economic situation is even worse, with hospitality businesses now heavily in debt, and extremely concerned as to the amount of time it will take to make bank repayments. My point is that even when Conwy county opens up its tourism sector to the UK and the world again, those hospitality businesses, which are essential to the local economy, could require years of financial incentives and rate relief. Bearing in mind the economic reality in Conwy county, and the knock-on effect this will have on local authority revenue, could you explain why you've only given the Conservative-led county local authority a 3.6 per cent settlement increase, instead of other examples of 5.6 per cent, such as the Labour-led Newport authority? Diolch.

Diolch. There's no question whatsoever that the tourism, hospitality and events sector is continuing to be significantly impacted by the pandemic and the necessary restrictions that are still in place to keep us all safe. We all recognise, I think, how difficult it is for these sectors and how difficult it will continue to be. Various financial support packages will have helped, but I know it continues to be a worrying situation, so I'm really pleased we've been able to extend things like the business rates holiday for another 12 months, and also that we've now got the range of ERF support specifically for leisure, tourism and hospitality sectors open.

I know that this is an area that the Member feels incredibly passionate about, particularly supporting the tourism sector, and talked a lot about the need to support and sustain coastal communities. I'm sure she'll be pleased to know that the Welsh Government will be continuing to support our coastal communities fund, and I'm sure she'll also be as disappointed as we were when we discovered that the UK Government has decided not to continue with the coastal communities fund in England. That means, as a consequence, that the funding that we would have got from the UK Government for the best part of the decade to support our previous round of the coastal communities programme—we won't be having it. But I'm really pleased, despite that, we're able to step up and put in additional funding to support and sustain our towns and coastal communities in north Wales and right across Wales, and I look forward to being in a position next week to announce the details of this additional funding to help those towns and communities to not just come back better, but to build back better post pandemic.

I thank the Deputy Minister and the Minister.