Lee Waters: As I've already said, the company had made no direct approach to the Welsh Government for help. We are now helping the employees to be able to find alternative employment and to retrain. The efforts we are making to accelerate the building of council houses and social housing more generally I think have been well rehearsed in this Chamber, and we certainly are alive to the need to support the...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Earlier today, a Great Western Railway train struck two people between Port Talbot and Bridgend at Margam. The Welsh Government, and I'm sure the entire National Assembly, is deeply shocked by this tragic incident involving railway workers and our thoughts are with their families, their friends and their colleagues. I know this will send shockwaves through...
Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank the committee for the considered way that they undertook their inquiry and for their report? The role of Transport for Wales is evolving, and it's useful for the committee to do this work at this point in the cycle. I was keen, as a member of this committee when it was drafting its work programme, that the committee put its nose into this...
Lee Waters: As we begin our journey with TfW to change Wales's network, the complexity and volatility of the drivers for change that the Welsh Government needs to respond to are unprecedented. The advent of new and emerging technologies in the transport sector will transform how people use transport in their everyday lives over the next decade. I was launching this morning, Dirprwy Llywydd, a new fleet...
Lee Waters: Thank you. The Minister for Finance and Trefnydd has received a commissioned report on how progressive procurement can develop local spend with local businesses. We are now developing a structured approach for delivery that encompasses public services boards across Wales to look at methods to achieve this.
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for the question. This is an area that we are actively working hard in. You mention Carmarthenshire and Caerphilly as examples of good practice, and we could add Ceredigion and Cardiff to that. There certainly are a number of local authorities who are doing good work in this area. One of the issues we have is that the performance across Wales is patchy, and the skills and the...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much for the question. I think that's an excellent example of good practice. I know from my own constituency, where, in local schools, children themselves are unhappy at having to have plastic bottles to drink their milk with, but the local authority doesn't have the flexibility in their contract to amend it at this stage and we're talking to them about that. So, the work we're...
Lee Waters: The Welsh Government’s priorities are set in our economic action plan, and the Valleys taskforce delivery plan aligns and focuses on actions that make a real difference, including strengthening the foundational economy.
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. The Member is right to point out the very significant investment the Welsh Government has made in the Heads of the Valleys through the dualling of the road. She also notes there have been community benefits delivered as part of the delivery of the scheme, including apprenticeships and training, employment of local people, spend with local companies, engagement with...
Lee Waters: Fewer.
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. I'm grateful for the opportunity to update Members on the work of the Valleys taskforce and outline its direction for the remainder of this Assembly. We should all be grateful for the huge amount of work done by my predecessor, Alun Davies, in establishing the taskforce, and to those who made significant contributions as its members. I've been keen to take the opportunity to...
Lee Waters: I'm hopeful the scheme will bring palpable benefits right across our Valleys communities. Llywydd, an empty property is not only a home going to waste, it's a blight on an area: overgrown gardens attract vermin and broken windows scar a street. By tackling the problem of empty homes, we will nurture the fabric of our communities and we'll also help the second of our strategic priorities:...
Lee Waters: Of course.
Lee Waters: I'm happy to write to the Member with the exact details of the plan. The main focus is going to be a new timber-framed building that will be a site for outreach and community involvement, as well as considerable environmental schemes too, but I'm happy to give him the full details of that. It is a site that was a late bid. We reopened the bidding to allow new bids. I was initially sceptical...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. I don't have an enormous amount of time to respond, so I won't be able to respond to each of the comments, but I'm happy to have further discussions with anybody who wishes. I'll try and address some of the points that have stuck with me. To begin with, Russell George's challenge on the target of 7,000 people into employment. I'm not sure where he gets his figures from. He...
Lee Waters: I won't, I'm afraid. But let me just tell you some of the things we are doing in the Rhondda—[Interruption.] I've got 30 seconds left, Leanne Wood, and I've agreed to meet you tomorrow to discuss in detail some of the issues you have raised. I don't have time, I'm afraid, but we are spending £27 million on the Rhondda—
Lee Waters: —£27 million in the Rhondda constituency alone from the metro, which you did not acknowledge. The foundational economy fund, I’m confident, will have projects in the Rhondda. The transport-to-work pilot is specifically in Rhondda Fach and the empty homes fund is also open to the Rhondda. So, I don’t think that it is a fair representation of the work that we’re doing in your...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. The Welsh Government has engaged with the company to understand what this announcement means and how we can best support those affected.
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. As I say, we have been in close discussions with the company and with the trade unions. My colleague Ken Skates spoke to the company immediately on the news breaking and officials have since been to the local plant to meet with the team there. We are reassured that the existing workforce will be fully redeployed, as we understand it, within Tata—that no worker...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I can confirm that Tata have not asked for any assistance from the Welsh Government, though we are working closely with them to make sure that any assistance the workforce needs is provided. It is worth pointing out that the uncertainty of the market that Tata's operating within has been a contributing factor for their decision to close the plant. If we are to leave the European...
