10. Will the Minister provide an update on changes to the Welsh Government's taxation policy to support businesses in light of the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56462

We have taken a series of tax measures to support businesses in Wales during this pandemic. These have included providing NDR relief, freezing the NDR multiplier and raising the threshold at which non-residential property transactions are subject to land transaction tax.  

Diolch, Minister. The Welsh Government in its final budget stated it will set aside a further £200 million for businesses from its own reserves. This is additional again to the previous Wales-only additional spend made from its own budget, and further cements Wales as providing the best package of business support in the whole of the UK. What representations therefore has the Welsh Government made to the Tory Chancellor in Westminster to enable the Welsh Government to have the flexibility in the future to continue to help support Welsh business?

We've been making arguments to the UK Government in respect of further flexibilities for the Welsh Government for some time, and I've been really grateful for Rhianon Passmore's support for the work that we've been doing in that area. I know it's something that her colleagues on the Finance Committee are particularly interested in supporting as well. I think that this year has taught us that financial flexibility is so important, both in terms of being able to target our resources effectively, but also to manage our in-year position in a year that has seen so much change. It's important I think that in future, the Welsh Government does have access to its full reserve. It's a small reserve in many ways, but actually having greater flexibility to access more of that would, I think, be useful for a future Government, as would the ability to borrow more in one year and borrow more in the aggregate. Especially now, that will be important, given the very, very poor capital settlement that we've had from the UK Government and also the UK Government's intent to bypass the Welsh Government now in terms of capital spend via the levelling-up fund.