7. What is the Welsh Government doing to provide extra support to energy-intensive industries? OQ58595

Llywydd, successive UK Conservative Governments have failed to create a level playing field for energy-intensive industries. The latest Chancellor needs to do that now. The Welsh Government delivers our support through investing in skills, energy efficiency, research, innovation, decarbonisation and a renewable energy future for Wales.

Thank you for that response, First Minister.

Hospitality and those small, independent breweries and restaurants that operate within that industry are facing some of the most challenging circumstances. Many are not expecting to make it much further beyond winter. For example, the owner of Ristorante Vecchio in Bridgend told The Glamorgan Gazette how his energy bills have increased to £8,000 a month. Energy prices are simply unaffordable, and, following on from Mabon's question, the cost of energy is one part of this, of course, but this is also about ensuring that we transition to green energy solutions as soon as we can, which would help with both the rising costs and the drive towards net zero. Breweries like Boss Brewery in Swansea have spent their reserves surviving the last couple of years. There's very little, if any, money for capital investment in green technology. Therefore, I would ask the Government what consideration it has given to potential grant funding to cover green energy initiatives for independent businesses, such as solar and voltage optimisation, which could be installed on the sites of these businesses, helping to insulate them from price hikes.

Well, Llywydd, I agree with what Luke Fletcher has said about the long-term importance of having a different system of energy supply. That will have a particular set of advantages to those energy-intensive industries. I thank him for drawing attention to the fact that, in our discussions of energy-intensive industries we tend to have the debate dominated by the very large companies—the Tatas and the Celsas of this world. And I was pleased, Llywydd, to see that the new Prime Minister had had a meeting at the very end of September with the chief executive of Tata in India. I wrote to the previous Prime Minister, following meetings that the economy Minister and I had had with senior figures in Tata, asking him to come forward with a UK plan for investment in that industry. He replied to me to say that that would fall to his successor. Well, I've written again. I've had no reply, but I've written again, and I was glad to see that that meeting had taken place, because resource-intensive energy industries are at a particular disadvantage in the United Kingdom, especially in comparison with competitors elsewhere.

The Welsh Government's part in this is inevitably at a different part of the spectrum, but we do work through the Development Bank of Wales, through Business Wales as well, to provide advice and sometimes direct financial support to industries that are interested in fuel switching, in efficiency measures, and being part of that wider move from fossil fuels to renewable energy, on which the future of Wales, I think, depends.

Finally, question 8—Vikki Howells.