Adam Price: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for this statement on the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Bill. You wait for one Welsh tax for over 700 years, and then two come along at once—funding vehicles both arriving together. We are very grateful for the opportunity, of course. This tax doesn’t raise as much in revenue as the land transaction tax—indeed, the hope is that the revenue will reduce. But...
Adam Price: Will the Minister make a statement on reports of potential job losses at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot steelworks? EAQ(5)0086EI
Adam Price: The Cabinet Secretary’s obviously referring to the very worrying report from Reuters yesterday based on an e-mail circulating among the trade unions and other sources. Could he say at what point he was aware of the possible proposal to close one of the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot and if he raised this in his letter to the new interim chair of Tata, Ratan Tata? Could he also say: the...
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. It’s a great pleasure to propose this motion in the name of my—we don’t have honourable friends in this place, do we? But, he is a friend and he is quite honourable. [Laughter.] It’s a timely debate, obviously, because we have the fourth national Small Business Saturday coming up, which is taking place across the four nations of the United Kingdom. It’s a nationwide...
Adam Price: Yes, absolutely. Are we going to see him sporting those next week as well—or maybe now? [Laughter.] I think that existing businesses reinventing themselves, absolutely, is as entrepreneurial as the start-up. Possibly we get too taken up with the hype, maybe, purely of the start-up, but actually the role of existing businesses and established businesses, we know, from the work of the FSB on...
Adam Price: Yes, certainly.
Adam Price: Yes, absolutely, and he’s anticipated my point really. These shimmering cathedrals of modern retail have an important part to play, of course, and we wouldn’t want people going elsewhere and going further afield to have those kinds of experiences, but when we look at the picture of some of the smaller towns that, traditionally, are particularly associated with smaller businesses and,...
Adam Price: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. It’s been a wide-ranging, largely positive and, indeed, at times, a deeply passionate debate. Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for injecting that note of passion. I’m not going to say it often, so, enjoy. [Laughter.] Indeed, thank you as well to Bethan Jenkins for reminding us that we can even do our bit for the Welsh economy while in our pyjamas, or whatever...
Adam Price: Very briefly, yes.
Adam Price: Well, I don’t know, but it’s a question that, jointly, we can put to the Government. Certainly, I’d be very keen that it is done on a proper data-gathering basis so that we can learn the lessons for the future as well. I think Hefin David made a good point, actually, that, obviously, the motivation of owner-managers is going to be different. Ultimately, they are there, obviously, to...
Adam Price: I will come to the remarks of the Cabinet Secretary in a second, but listening to the spokesperson of the Conservative Party, I was put in mind of one of those choice quotes of John Maynard Keynes who, in an earlier time of economic turbulence, said: ‘Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct...
Adam Price: I have some very simple and bad news for him: yes, we have huge debt in the public sector, but has he looked at the state of corporate debt in the private sector? The entire economy of the western world is indebted. So, what is he suggesting? That we all cut all economic activity, and that we go back to ground zero? Re-read Keynes by all means. We are back in the same situation where...
Adam Price: Will the Welsh Government make a statement on the outcome of recent talks between Tata Steel and unions over the future of its Welsh and British operations? EAQ(5)0097(EI)
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. It was expected for the regional gross value added figures to be released today by the Office for National Statistics, but they’ve been postponed for a week—perhaps realising the Welsh Government have already had a tough enough week with yesterday’s PISA results. However, I would like to bring to the attention of the Cabinet Secretary a report released by Ernst and Young...
Adam Price: I’m all for optimism and enthusiasm and passion. I admire that in the Cabinet Secretary, but we have to remind ourselves, don’t we, that we’re at 71.3 per cent of the UK average already. The first step in turning around our abysmal economic performance is a reality check on where we currently are. As he devises his new economic strategy, could I urge him to read the recent CBI report...
Adam Price: The other area that is highlighted by the CBI report is skills. It’s absolutely vital that we get workplace training right, and we can only do that if we talk to the employers. There’s a worrying lack of information and clarity at the moment about how the apprenticeship levy is going to be operated. The UK Government did hold an initial consultation, Scotland and Northern Ireland have...
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to move amendments 2, 3, 4 and 5 tabled in the name of Plaid Cymru. Of course, in these amendments, we are focusing specifically on the things that were omitted from the autumn statement. It may be some sort of reflection of the different personality of this Chancellor. There is some suggestion that he didn’t want to...
Adam Price: Well, I welcome that very warmly, and if this place can speak with one voice, then I truly hope that that voice will be heard in the corridors of Whitehall and Westminster. Finally, and to the same end, if truth be told, I hope that there will be support for this too. We do need progress with this golden opportunity that we have with the tidal lagoon. Dai Lloyd insists that it should be...
Adam Price: There can be no doubt at all that after an intensely difficult year, some degree of certainty, at least in the near term for steelworkers and their families, is very good news indeed, particularly at this time of year. ‘Crisis averted’ for the Welsh steel industry will be welcomed on all sides of the Assembly, but ‘crisis merely delayed’ would be a very different proposition and...
Adam Price: I very much welcome this update from the Cabinet Secretary and the advance copy of his statement. It’s 30 years since Wales lost its only independent banking institution at the time, the Commercial Bank of Wales, and I think we’ve suffered as a result of that glaring gap in our institutional architecture as an economy. I think the question that has to be posed now is: are we going to...
