Written question WQ82533

We are committed to the development of a retail strategy which will respond to the challenges the sector faces in the short, medium and long term and currently provide a number of bespoke packages to help eligible businesses.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve ensured more than £2bn has reached businesses across Wales, which has helped protect thousands of firms and safeguard many more jobs. In addition, Welsh businesses in the hardest hit sectors continue to benefit from a full 12 month business rates holiday package, which goes considerably beyond what is available in England, where businesses will begin paying a third of their rates again from next month. We will continue to review the options for supporting businesses further.

Our Transforming Towns programme is providing nearly £110m to help support the economic and social recovery of our town and city centres. We also have ambitious plans to help people work remotely and are trialling a series of community-based remote working hubs, encouraging people to work closer to home and driving footfall back into town centres.

We announced on 22 January a further £3 million for the Foundational Economy Challenge Fund to support projects which improve and deliver the everyday goods and services we need.

In February we announced an additional £270m for the Development Bank of Wales’ Flexible Investment Fund. This means more than £500m will be available through the fund up to 2030 to support the long term success and growth of our firms, in turn creating and protecting thousands of Welsh jobs.