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00:00Kevin Campbell. Thank you very much, Llywydd. How is the Welsh
00:03Government supporting town centre businesses in mid and west Wales?
00:09We have made available £125 million of transforming towns funding to secure the
00:14economic and social resilience of town centres, enabling job creation, developing green
00:19infrastructure, improving community facilities and access to services, and supporting local
00:24businesses. Thank you very much for that response. As
00:29we all know, these circumstances facing many of our smaller companies are very numerous.
00:38The cost of energy continues to be high, inflation pressures and so on, and I am sure
00:44we would all agree that they need all the support that we can provide. I am concerned that many
00:49town centre businesses in mid and west Wales are paying a very high price in business rates.
00:56At the end of last year, I and Elin Jones wrote to the Valuation Office Agency to express concerns
01:02on the business rates charged for businesses in Aberystwyth specifically.
01:08Alun Davies AM, Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Government.
01:08Aberystwyth is concerned, Cabinet Secretary, that the business rates being charged on some
01:13commercial properties there are higher than in the centre of Cardiff. In some cases, the zone
01:20prices per square metre are almost three times higher on Aberystwyth's Great Darcot Street than
01:28on Swansea's Kingsway. Do you agree with me that this seems, frankly, absurd? Further, locally
01:36owned businesses in Aberystwyth town centre are paying up to 10 times as much in business rates
01:41than out-of-town train stores. So, my question is simple. What do you propose to do to address
01:49this imbalance?
01:50Julie James AM, Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Government.
01:52When it comes to setting rateable values of properties, they are independent of the Welsh
01:58Government and set independently by the Valuation Office Agency. But, if Kevin Campbell wouldn't
02:04mind writing to myself on this particular issue, giving those examples, then I'd be happy, of
02:09course, to take them up with the Minister for Finance's responsibility in this area to explore
02:15them in a little bit more detail.