8. What support is the Welsh Government providing to businesses in light of inflation and rising energy costs? OQ58577

The main levers to tackle cost increases on businesses, interest rates for borrowing, the tax of windfall profits and regulation of the energy market lie squarely with the UK Government. Our priority is to support businesses to decarbonise and to save, as I've mentioned in response to previous questions today. We continue to identify opportunities to redirect resources to reduce burdens on business.

Thank you very much for that response. I asked yesterday for a statement following the news that 28 jobs are in the balance in AMG Alpoco in Holyead; I've written to the Minister about that issue again today. An increase in costs, and energy costs in particular, is driving this restructuring, but, of course, Alpoco are not alone on this. Plas Farm, an ice cream and frozen yoghurt company in Anglesey, are seeing inflation adding up to 50 per cent on their costs, and they, like Alpoco, can't pass on those costs to their customers. Now, Plas Farm are expecting an increase of almost £50,000 a month in their energy bills—£50,000 a month. That raises concerns about the future of the company and the 25 staff. They are investing in solar energy, for example, but while, of course, we need to see urgent action by the UK Government, may I ask again what support the Welsh Government can provide to energy-intensive companies such as Plas Farm? Also, may I ask for an assurance that every support is being provided for the workforce of Alpoco at present? 

We are doing everything that we can with the levers that we have available to us to try to support businesses that find themselves in exactly this position. We know that there is a range of energy-intensive businesses, as I said earlier in response to your colleague Luke Fletcher, and our challenge is both wanting a settlement on UK Government support, but also what we can do to try to support those businesses as well. We don’t have the financial firepower to do everything that we’d want to with businesses that face a very difficult future.

We have got a number of resource efficiency advisers available through the Business Wales service, to try to help businesses to understand what their energy needs are and if there is help available. We are also, as I said, looking at what we can do in the near future, and I expect to be making a statement in the coming weeks about how we think that we can help more businesses to take advantage of the help that is available and expand that help, to try to make sure that we decarbonise and de-risk future energy supply.

But you can’t get away from the significant scale of the energy crisis and what it is doing to businesses. I’m sure that if every Member stood up, they could give, as you have done, a list of businesses—viable businesses that employ people on decent terms—that are facing the prospect of not being able to keep all of those people on board in the very near future, or indeed the potential of those businesses not existing at all. It sets out the scale of the crisis that we do face.

It’s why we’ll carry on doing what we can, in terms of wanting to make sure that viable businesses have a good future as well, but it’s also about reiterating our call for the UK Government to finally do something that will provide some stability in the market and will provide some stability for the future costs of people. And if that were to happen, we would be supportive of doing that. But, as I say, that is largely unfinished, and I look forward with some trepidation to the Halloween budget and what that will really deliver for businesses and households.

I thank the Minister.