Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. One of this Government’s key areas of focus is on nurturing the everyday parts of our economy. The industries and firms that are there because people are there, the food we eat, the homes we live in, the energy we use and the care we receive: these are the foundations of our economy. They account for four in 10 jobs, and £1 in every £3 that we spend. And they are...
Lee Waters: Dirprwy Lywydd, I'm anxious to avoid creating 52 pilot projects that risk fizzling out. That's why our second focus is on spreading and scaling best practice. The foundational economy agenda is a practical expression of the principles laid out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. So, I'm working with the public services boards as key partners to help apply what works to...
Lee Waters: Initially, we will focus on spreading the success achieved by Preston council in using local purchasing power to build local wealth. We're appointing a partner organisation to work alongside public services boards to maximise the social value of procurement. Together, they will identify local providers for goods and services. But we don’t just want to copy Preston’s progressive approach...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you very much. First of all, to address one of the final points about the support being offered, which I appreciate, Members will remember the movement behind this policy agenda came from this Assembly as part of a civil society movement. It was from the universities, it was from the third sector, and from business organisations, as well as a cross-party effort that the impetus...
Lee Waters: The detail of it—we are finding our way as we go. The Basques, I'm told, use an elegant phrase, that they lay the road as they travel. I use a less elegant phrase, that we were making it up as we went along. This is what I was referring to, specifically this experimental approach, rather than saying, 'We have a template, we know how this works.' The whole point of this agenda—that's why...
Lee Waters: Yes. Was it: how is local procurement defined? As I said, we're looking to move beyond Preston's model, which tried to define it within spending within the local postcode, to taking a relational approach. So, in Carmarthenshire, for example, there's a very exciting project to get local food into local schools and local hospitals. Now if, for example—I'm just using this for illustrative...
Lee Waters: Thank you again. I'll try and take those points in order and again reiterate the point that the support for this agenda has come from across the Chamber, and I appreciate that. And in fact, as I mentioned in the statement, the initial £1.5 million commitment to an experimental fund came from the negotiations and agreement between the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru. I'm delighted...
Lee Waters: And in terms of Arfor, Eluned Morgan, the Minister for international development and the Welsh language, and I recently met with the leaders of the Arfor programme from across Wales, and had a long discussion with them about how that project works, and it struck me then that we were creating a silo here, that there was so much in common between this agenda and the foundational economy agenda,...
Lee Waters: Thank you. Well, in deference to the warning of the Dirprwy Lywydd, I'll try and keep my answer brief. I'm aware that some community councils did bid into the challenge fund, but I don't think any were successful. It was a competitive fund and there were far more quality schemes than we had funding for, even after tripling the budget. But I think, in my statement, I set out the challenge for...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the comments. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, the fact that I recognised so many words included in your statement is testimony that that is true. I recognise that there is a lot of common ground here. Just to address two specific points that you made—you talked about in the economic action plan that we identified four foundation sectors, and you...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. And I absolutely must acknowledge the role that Vikki Howells played, with a number of other colleagues, in supporting this agenda to date. And I am keen that we continue to work together on it, and it's only right that that role is a challenging one. So, I welcome the question, which points out that there's still some room to go to break down those silos. The NDF is not...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. To address those points quickly, Project Skyline I think is a very exciting project. The first phase, as you know, was a feasibility study, looking at how communities could manage the landscape that surrounds their town or village. And the Green Valleys community interest company worked with Treherbert, Ynysowen and Caerau. Now, they've successfully put a bid into this...
Lee Waters: Well, as I say, the money we've announced, for example the £10 million through the Valleys taskforce for bringing empty homes back into use and, as we wanted to expand that to look at empty shops as well, has huge potential within the grounded firms foundational economy space, because it's mostly going to be local firms who are going to be doing that work. I went with Vikki Howells to see in...
Lee Waters: Via Superfast Cymru, we have provided over 111,350 premises across west Wales with average broadband speeds of 82 Mbps, investing over £32.3 million. Our successor scheme will provide connectivity to a further 1,348 premises, alongside support from Access Broadband Cymru and the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. And a new community fund is also being developed.
Lee Waters: Well, thank you very much, and I have sympathy with the people of Mynachlog-ddu, because, clearly, this is a vital piece of connectivity we now all rely upon. But I repeat again to the Member that this is not a devolved matter. The UK Government has the lead responsibility for connecting people through telecommunications policies, and this is an area where they should be taking the lead, and...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. Joyce Watson is absolutely right to point out the European dimension to this, because the £200 million that we invested in Superfast Cymru was a combination of UK Government funding, European funding, and Welsh Government funding. So there was a contribution from the UK Government, but it took the Welsh Government's leadership to put that package together, and deploy...
Lee Waters: Yes. We have created a special taskforce group to investigate the issues around pavement parking and decide on how best to implement a solution to this problem. The group is due to report on its findings in June of this year.
Lee Waters: Thank you. I think all of us have fresh experience of walking miles around our constituencies in recent months, and we'll have seen for ourselves that this is a problem in a variety of communities. And Hefin David is absolutely right: in some, especially the newer estates, households, especially if they have more than one car, often don't really have much alternative other than parking on the...
Lee Waters: I thank David Melding for that. As well as commending Living Streets for their research, I would have hoped that he would have commended the Welsh Government for taking action in this area. We are working closely with Living Streets. As I say, he's highlighted some of the complexities that are involved in introducing a ban, and we are going to work through those. Because the current...
Lee Waters: I think we shouldn't knock local authorities here because they are in a very difficult position. The problem at heart is the number of cars many of us now own. And the streets simply were not designed to cater for the volume of vehicles that are trying to squeeze into a street that was designed for the horse and cart. So, it's not simply a case of providing extra land for more car parking,...
