2. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to support the economy in Preseli Pembrokeshire? OQ56626

Thank you very much to Paul Davies for the question. Dealing effectively with the threat of coronavirus remains the single greatest form of support to the economy of Preseli Pembrokeshire. That will allow businesses in the constituency to take advantage of all the other investments this Government makes in securing their future.

First Minister, bearing in mind that restrictions remain in place, it's important that you as a Government do everything within your power to support our businesses in moving forward, and to support local economies. Now, travel businesses in my constituency have contacted me because they are still having difficulties with the impact of the pandemic on their ability to do business. And one business told me, and I quote,

'We need financial support to help us through to the next phase. In reality, we've received zero income for the past 15 months. It's an impossible situation and it's unsustainable, and it's time, at a regional and a national level, for the travel industry to receive a targeted support package.'

First Minister, what's your message to this business and to travel companies across Wales? And will you commit to providing support to the sector in order to safeguard its sustainability for the future?

Thank you very much to Paul Davies for that question. I agree that the coronavirus crisis has had a major impact on small businesses in the travel industry, and that is going to continue over the coming months. So, the Minister for Economy has announced a package of additional support for business that have felt the impact of the fact that we can't continue with the reopening as we had originally intended. The Minister is still working with officials to prepare additional support for businesses, such as businesses in the travel industry, that can't reopen at all or that can't reopen fully. That work is ongoing, and the Minister will come to the Chamber to explain how we're going to provide additional support to businesses, such as travel businesses, as Paul Davies has suggested this afternoon. 

Paul Davies will know that businesses in Wales have received £400 million more in coronavirus support than they would have done had those same businesses been in England. That is what the Welsh Government has done to support the economy, both in Preseli Pembrokeshire and right across Wales. But, looking ahead, First Minister—I know that you talked about this in some detail last week—will you make sure that any consultation on a proposed tourism levy will take on board the views of local ratepayers in our tourist hotspots, as well as the brilliant businesses that served those visitors. Because they're the ones who bear the brunt of council budget constraints that pay for things like the toilets, rubbish collection and car parks, and I think it's only fair that they should be able to ask those who can afford to holiday in our beautiful region to pay just a little extra.  

Well, Llywydd, I thank Joyce Watson for both of those important points. And she is right, of course, that an enormous amount of help has already been provided to businesses here in Wales. In Pembrokeshire alone, nearly 7,000 grants have been paid out at many millions of pounds to go on supporting those companies and those businesses as we are committed to doing.

When it comes to the tourism levy, Llywydd, as I explained last week, the discussion we intend to have is one about a local power for local authorities to raise a levy where they choose to do so and think that would be right for their local circumstances. Where Joyce Watson is undoubtedly true is that the idea is a popular one amongst those indigenous populations who currently have to bear the full costs of all the services that are provided in their areas, even when those populations rise very considerably during a holiday season. And the purpose of a levy, were there to be a local authority that wished to use it, in my mind, is to make sure that visitors make a small contribution to the investment that is needed to keep the places that they visit thriving, and to have all those facilities—the car parks, the toilets and everything else that, if you visit somewhere, you hope to find. Making a small contribution to it seems to me to be an investment in the future success of those businesses and of those localities, and to do it in a way that is fair, where the costs involved are shared between people who live there permanently and people who are making a visit to those fantastic places we have here in Wales.