2. How does the Welsh Government support the development of community benefit societies? OQ57315

Llywydd, I thank Peter Fox for that question. Core funding is provided to the Wales Co-operative Centre and Social Firms Wales to support the development of co-operative enterprises, including community benefit societies. Support from the Social Business Wales service and the Community Shares Wales resilience project is also available to promote their establishment in Wales.

Thank you, First Minister, for that response. Recently, I had the pleasure of discussing my proposed food Bill with members of Câr-y-Môr, a community benefit society, which my colleagues in west Wales will be very well aware of. They are owned by over 100 local members, but focused on serving the broader interests of their local community. It was great to hear about their plans and how their work is contributing to the sustainable development of our coastal environment. However, they raised some issues that they had experienced, which have hindered the development of CBSs across Wales. For example, there was a need to ensure that the CBS model was more widely understood amongst Government organisations and public bodies, as well as funding providers, such as banks. Due to a lack of knowledge about how they work, some CBSs have struggled to access reliable sources of funding, as well as access to sufficient advice and support, and there's fear that they may collapse if this can't be addressed quickly. First Minister, do you agree with me that CBSs are an important way of promoting sustainable development in Wales? And what else can Welsh Government do to help CBSs, like Câr-y-Môr, to fulfil their potential and to help others duplicate this model to create more locally owned businesses? Thank you. 

Llywydd, I thank Peter Fox for that. I am familiar with Câr-y-Môr, but more in the south-west Wales context, in the Solva and St David's area, and it is a very fine example of a commercial enterprise, but with strong community roots, looking to start the first commercial seaweed and shellfish farm in Wales. I think the things that they have said to Peter Fox probably are true: a better understanding of that new model and what community benefit societies can do, particularly a better understanding amongst potential commercial investors, so that they're not reliant either on their ability to raise money from very local communities or through the Welsh Government. There's genuine potential for commercial investment in some of these ideas as well. I'm perfectly happy, Llywydd, to ask my officials to meet with Câr-y-Môr to hear directly from them about their own experience, and then to see what more we can do to promote the understanding of community benefit societies, and look for new ways in which they can be further promoted in Wales. 

I recently met with Mark Hooper from Banc Cambria in Abertillery to discuss the availability of banking facilities in different parts of our communities. The Welsh Government has restated today, in its statement on the programme for government, its commitment to community banking. Would the First Minister agree with me that the priority for community banking and taking forward the launch of Banc Cambria, as a national community bank in Wales, is to ensure that people across the whole country have access to financial services in their own communities, and that some of our most deprived communities have banking and financial services available to them with branches back on the high street? 

Llywydd, I very much agree with what Alun Davies said there. We are committed to supporting the creation of a community bank for Wales, headquartered here in Wales, owned and run for the benefit of its members as a mutual community financial institution. I know that the aim of Banc Cambria is to provide every day full retail banking services, particularly in those communities where we've seen a flight of mainstream financial institutions, leaving many high streets bereft of facilities on which many people have relied. I very well remember, Llywydd, a visit to Buckley with my colleague Jack Sargeant, where, from a single spot on the high street, Jack was able to point to four different buildings—landmark buildings a couple of them—that, even five years ago, had been occupied by mainstream banks, every one of them gone from that high street. And the importance we attach to the idea of developing a community bank for Wales is to bring those services back to high streets in the way that Alun Davies suggested, and particularly to do so in those places where those mainstream financial institutions, which made a lot of money out of those communities, have fled, very often leaving very little behind. 

I remember the visit with the Prif Weinidog to Buckley in my constituency very fondly. It was an excellent visit some months ago. Last Saturday was Small Business Saturday, as we know, and it's those small businesses, like the butchers in Buckley high street, the hairdressers in Buckley high street and the many other businesses, that keep more money in our communities every single day of the year. And, like my colleague Alun Davies, I recently had a great conversation with the excellent Mark Hooper of Banc Cambria about the types of benefits a community bank can offer to small and medium-sized enterprises. So, I welcome the drive from the First Minister in driving this bold agenda to this stage, where we have secured cross-party support for the establishment of a community bank in Wales, and it will be delivered in Wales. But can I ask the First Minister how can we continue this type of bold agenda where community focus is right at the heart of our bold and radical programme for government?

Well, I thank Jack Sargeant for that, Llywydd. I too was out on Saturday, marking Small Business Saturday and meeting with businesses who do so much to keep our high streets vibrant and alive. The Royal Society of Arts, Llywydd, which first brought the idea of a community bank to the Welsh Government, had very dramatic figures of the collapse in lending to very small enterprises within a mile radius of a commercial bank when it ceases to be available in that locality. Within a year, lending to that sector really, really goes down, which is why, as well as being a very important development for individual people who otherwise are financially excluded, having a community bank on the high street will also be very good for those local businesses as well—not looking for large amounts of money, but looking to make that next small investment that puts that business on the path to expansion and to further prosperity. The Minister for Economy will make a statement here on the floor of the Senedd next week on the creation of the community bank for Wales, and I think it will demonstrate the ways in which we are able, as Jack Sargeant said, to go on supporting that community-focused agenda.