9. How is the Welsh Government supporting the recovery of town centre businesses in Carmarthenshire? OQ57828

Our £136 million Transforming Towns programme focuses on the diversification and sustainable growth of town and city centres, through interventions that include the reuse of derelict and empty buildings, increasing the variety of and access to services in towns and cities, and an emphasis on flexible working and living space, mixed-use space, improved green infrastructure, and, of course, services and leisure.

We heard earlier, in Sioned Williams's question, a reference to the FSB report, which demonstrates the very challenging circumstances facing shops in our town centres, and 67 per cent of the public questioned described their town centres as being bleak or in a poor state, with only 3 per cent talking about prosperous town centres. Now, in that challenging context, does the Minister welcome the significant investment that Plaid Cymru-led Carmarthenshire County Council has announced in its towns programme—its 10 Towns programme—including investment in Ammanford in my constituency? And in thinking of what the Welsh Government can do at a national level to promote local investment of this kind, are you looking at moving away from a business rates system to a new system based on land value, where there is evidence that changing that regime would promote and encourage better investment in our town centres and would be fairer in terms of the kind of independent local shops that Sioned Williams referred to?

Well, I welcome the Member's consistent call for land valuation to replace business rates, and, of course, as I've said earlier, the reform of business rates or otherwise is a matter for the Minister for Finance and Local Government.

But I continue to take an interest in the practical reality of where we are now and where we could be in the future, and that's why we have worked alongside towns in terms of a specific piece of work that we're doing, a specific funding, not just a Transforming Towns initiative, but the money we've given to the smart town centre, the towns into business fund, what we're looking to do to both measure and promote footfall within what we want to be thriving, living and working spaces. And when it comes to the work that Carmarthenshire council is doing, of course, they've had over £10 million from the Welsh Government in Transforming Towns grant funding, and that has helped with a range of transformation projects that the council is undertaking with that Welsh Government funding.

I do welcome the fact that, as I said earlier, local authorities of different political leaderships are looking to invest in their town centres, looking to invest in their future. I look forward to working with whoever the electors choose to continue leading and running Carmarthenshire County Council on the work that I think we will find a consensus for, in Carmarthenshire and across each of the economic regions, where, of course, local authorities are pooling and sharing a range of their resources.

And finally, question 10, Rhys ab Owen.