Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 15 December 2021.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:39, 15 December 2021

I thank Peter Fox for those questions, and I particularly would recognise everything that he said about the importance of this time of the year to those businesses, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors. I just want to reassure Peter Fox that I have been having discussions with the First Minister and with my colleague the Minister for Economy in terms of what support may be necessary to provide to business in recognition of the impact that the coronavirus pandemic continues to have on businesses here in Wales. I'm not in a position, unfortunately, to outline the specific package of funding that we might be looking at at this point; I just want to reassure you that those discussions are actively ongoing at the moment with colleagues. I have had the opportunity to hear directly from the Federation of Small Businesses, at one of our recent partnership meetings, and they were very clear in the need to support business. I also had the opportunity to meet the Welsh Retail Consortium when I was preparing for the budget. So, I've had really good opportunities to hear directly the concerns of business.

And, of course, non-domestic rates were very much a part of those conversations, and, again, just to provide reassurance to Peter Fox and those in the business sector, I will have more to say in this regard in the budget, which we'll be publishing on Monday. So, there's not too much longer to wait for that, but I am really proud of what we've been able to achieve through our support via business rates here in Wales, because, of course, across the border, those businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure were starting to pay their rates in the summer of this year, whereas our businesses here have had a whole year's relief, which I think has been really excellent and, of course, helps us in this particularly challenging time of the year.