Diolch, Weinidog. When prompted to rank what they would like to see in their local town centre or high street, thriving small, independent shops came out on top in a survey conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses for its recent report, 'A Vision for Welsh Towns'. Even before COVID, town centres in my region were struggling, and the pandemic has had an especially negative effect on small and family-run high-street retail businesses. The support given to these local businesses during the pandemic has, of course, helped them weather that particular storm, but now although restrictions are easing, footfall is still low and the bills are now really piling up.

One of my constituents has run a shop in Neath town centre for much of the last 10 years. He said that with support ending and high business rates on top of that, they're really having a tough time; as sky-rocketing energy bills are presenting another headache, he said lower business rates would really help. As high business rates are compounding the challenges that town centres face, will the Minister consider increasing rates relief for town-centre retail businesses and heed the FSB's call to urgently publish its review of the business rates system and outline proposals for substantive reform that works for small local businesses? Diolch.