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The Budget

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding me of that. The truth is that we need to rebalance the Welsh economy. I call for reductions in the small company rate of corporation tax, too, in due course. If the corporation tax rate comes down from 30% to 23% during the course of this Parliament, I would like to see a corresponding reduction for small companies. In my constituency, a large number of self-employed people are sole traders or partnerships. No doubt the huge increase in personal allowances will be a direct benefit to such businesses, because when business people are allowed to keep more of their money within their ventures, they have the opportunity to invest. In the Budget debates, I was delighted to refer to a company in my constituency, in the town of Llanrwst, which—as a direct result of the Budget—felt confident enough to invest a further £160,000 in its business and give its staff their first pay rise since 2008. That is a sign of a responsible small business, which is sharing its success with its staff and investing for the future. That investment decision was made because of confidence in the business as a result of the Budget. We need that type of growth and investment to ensure a sustainable future for the Welsh economy. We need a sustainable future, because we cannot carry on with this over-dependence on the public sector. Finally, the right hon. Member for Neath and the hon. Member for Pontypridd challenged the Secretary of State for Wales on the alleged barriers to economic growth in Wales. I made a quick intervention on that to highlight that one of the barriers was the Department of Economy and Transport in Wales. When we look at economic prosperity in a Welsh context since 1999, the picture is atrocious—the performance of the Welsh economy has fallen. Despite our having created a structure that should be supporting business and the fact that we have received massive amounts of European money, the performance in west Wales and the valleys has gone backwards. We have to ask ourselves, why is that so? We have heard evidence in the Welsh Affairs Committee about international businesses having a lack of confidence in investing in Wales, because when they meet Welsh Assembly Ministers, they hear fine words, but they see no action.