North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood spoke at a meeting in Flint on Friday about the importance of business to Wales and how important the Assembly is to small and medium sized Businesses.
Addressing the meeting at Enterprise House in Flint, which provides Serviced Offices and facilities for businesses, Mr Isherwood emphasized that the Assembly is responsible for Business support, economic development and employability in Wales and said “the fact that Wales is a nation of small and medium sized enterprises should always be key to Welsh Government policy making”.
He said:
“I am not a member of the Welsh Government and I speak today as an Assembly Member representing North Wales, as Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for North Wales, Communities and Local Government, and as a former member of the Assembly’s Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, which examines legislation and holds the Welsh Government to account by scrutinising expenditure, administration and policy matters, encompassing economic development; transport; infrastructure; employment; skills; and research and development, including technology and science.
“My Party wants to put SMEs at the centre of economic policy in Wales to boost job creation, address regional inequality and increase wages – where Wales has the lowest level of weekly wages across the UK.
“There are 248,425 micro, small, and medium sized businesses in Wales, which collectively make up 99.3% of all enterprises operating in the country and account for just under 65% of total employment across Wales. SMEs are especially important drivers of growth and job creation in rural areas of Wales, where larger firms are less present.
“As of 2017, Figures from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) show that Wales’ 240,000 small to medium sized businesses turned over £46 billion a year, equivalent to £126m per day. To put this is context, the Welsh Government’s discretionary budget for 2016/17 was £15.3 billion.
Mr Isherwood also referred to the North Wales Growth Deal.
He said: “I have been a strong and active supporter of the North Wales Growth Deal from inception.
“Last October’s budget announcement by the UK Chancellor of £120 million of funding for the North Wales Growth Deal, supporting investment, jobs and prosperity in our Region – was followed by the Welsh Government’s announcement of match funding for this last December.
“The Growth Bid proposals united Local Authorities, Businesses, Further and Higher Education across North Wales.
“Heads of Terms on the Growth Deal were due for agreement by the end of February. This was then deferred to July – and then to October/November.
“Once Heads of Terms have been agreed it is understood that it would take 4-6 months to finalise the business cases ahead of a final announcement.
“To complement the forthcoming North Wales Growth Deal, now expected in 2020, the North Wales Economic Ambition Board announced in June its plan for investing up to £7 million from Wave 3 of the UK Government’s Local Full Fibre Networks programme, which will see Gigabit capable fibre and Ultrafast broadband services being used to connect up to 400 further sites.”