Support for Businesses

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 14 December 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:35, 14 December 2022

Thank you for the question. This is not just topical, it's important not just for now but for the future as well. And we're looking at opportunities both to decarbonise but I would say also to save costs and to help the bottom line, and I think it's important that we do both of those things. Some businesses will be persuaded by the broader imperatives of the climate, and others will want to know, 'Will this help me with my business, or not, because I need to survive to next month, to next quarter, to next year?' And that's exactly what we're doing. We've got campaigns that we've already launched previously, through Business Wales—the resource efficiency advisers are already in place, we have a green ambition campaign and green growth pledge through Business Wales, and we can help businesses with their ambitions to become greener and smarter. But, in particular, when it comes to direct support—and I've outlined this in both evidence to committee and, I think, in previous questions as well—early in the new year, we'll do more on launching some of the work we're going to do on specific decarbonisation support, together with the scheme that the Development Bank of Wales will provide for loan finance, to help businesses to invest in decarbonisation, to invest in energy generation, as well as efficiency, and that really should help businesses with their bottom line, in addition to the support we're providing through non-domestic rates relief here in Wales, as announced at the start of this week.