I would like to focus my contribution on businesses in North Wales.

Whenever I have met with small and medium-sized companies in the region, this issue of business rates keeps coming up again and again.

And many of these businesses, which have survived the recession so far, are understandably in a very vulnerable financial situation.

But when the economy does start growing again, these businesses will be the ones in the best place to expand their workforces.

In the meantime, they deserve appropriate support from the Assembly Government so that they will still be there when business picks up again.

What they don’t need, is this situation over the revaluation in April, that will see 40 thousand of them worse off.

I have spoken with a local garage, that employs seven, and their rates are due to be hiked nearly 50% to over £15 thousand.

The rates being charged for empty property has already led to a situation where businesses units have been dismantled - I have raised this issue here with the First Minister and Deputy First Minster many times over the last 12 months, and yet it is still going on, because tenants can’t be found for industrial units.

It is perverse that because of the lack of sufficient relief, economic infrastructure in North Wales is being demolished.

I have spoke at length with a major manufacturer in North Wales over this issue…

They have found themselves between a rock and a hard place – they need the extra capacity because they want to respond to any upturn, but until this comes – and it is worrying that under Gordon Brown leadership, the UK is the last G20 nation in recession – they are being hammered for the units which are empty and this undermines their ability to survive, and keep their skilled workforce in the meantime.

Businesses in North Wales need robust support from the Assembly Government – Welsh Conservatives have proposed a fully-costed way of achieving this… which would help 90 thousand businesses.

And yet this Assembly Government has dragged its feet, sending out mixed messages, while businesses in Scotland and England have received firm commitments.

I would urge the Minister to take the points raised here by Welsh Conservatives, and work with his colleagues to give Welsh businesses the rate relief they need…

So that they have a fighting chance of leading Wales to economic recovery, and replacing the thousands of jobs that have been lost in this recession.