Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 19 October 2022.
Well, you're right, it is a difficult time for families and for businesses who are struggling to survive, with the uncertainty and unstable picture at a UK level. That has a real impact for all of us. The cost of business finance has increased, as well as individual costs for home owners as well. Of course, I've noticed inflation is just over 10 per cent in the updated figures today. I think trying to suggest that the Welsh Government taking a properly interested and constructive role in the investment zone proposal that has been made is leading to dismay and is the real cause for fear and uncertainty for the future of businesses simply doesn't reflect the reality of where we are. In my direct engagement with the Federation of Small Businesses they have never expressed anything approaching dismay at the approach that I am taking in engagement with UK Ministers. I need to understand properly what the proposals are, what the proposals mean for Wales, what they mean for devolved taxation, and what they mean for the revenue realities of this Government, bearing in mind the fact that we expect to face a tightening, a reduction, a cut in our budget when the Halloween budget is finally delivered. And we also again need to understand what will happen to investment zones near our border. Investment zones are proposed in the south-west and indeed there's a proposal to impose an investment zone in Cheshire West and Wirral, and these things will matter to us. I need to understand the policies, I need to understand what it really means, and I would ideally like to have a conversation that looks much more like the end of our free ports discussion, rather than the megaphone shouting in the year and more that preceded that agreement.