Town-centre Businesses in Carmarthenshire

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 23 March 2022.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 2:12, 23 March 2022

(Translated)

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?