Nick Ramsay: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on her priorities for education spending in 2017?
Nick Ramsay: Diolch. Happy new year, Cabinet Secretary.
Nick Ramsay: I am risking repetition, with this morning’s committee, which you’ve already mentioned, but it is fresh in the mind and extremely important: can you update us on your agreement with the UK Government on the much-awaited fiscal framework?
Nick Ramsay: Thank you for your commitment to a statement next week and also for your team’s efforts in this regard. I think it is a good example of what can be achieved when the Welsh Government, the Assembly as a whole, and the UK Government work together. It’s not always happened in the past, but it’s good to see that progress has been made. Can you clarify, as you understand it, the permanence...
Nick Ramsay: That is certainly good news, Cabinet Secretary, and a major plus of the current Wales Bill as it progresses. These are clearly fiscally complex times for the Assembly with the devolution of new taxes, the consequent variance in the block grant, the advent of borrowing powers—I could go on. I understand that the agreement allows for yearly review of arrangements. Can you update us on...
Nick Ramsay: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Monmouthshire County Council has worked closely with the Welsh Government to immeasurably improve, initially, primary schools in Monmouthshire, and Monmouth Comprehensive School is now being rebuilt, with other comprehensives having to wait. There continues to be a real problem with the presence of asbestos in schools across Wales. How are you going to ensure...
Nick Ramsay: 8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the financial support available for new businesses in Wales? OAQ(5)0378(FM)
Nick Ramsay: Thank you, First Minister. We know full well the problems that businesses in some areas of Wales are facing with the huge hikes in business rates this April. This is particularly difficult for newer businesses. While I welcome the commitment of extra support in the budget, there’s still a lack of clarity over how that money is going to be distributed, and some businesses have told me that...
Nick Ramsay: It’s the way you tell them, Cabinet Secretary. Happy new year to you as well. You would be forgiven for thinking that it was still ‘Blue Monday’ by listening to some of the less than positive questions you’ve received today, Cabinet Secretary. Whilst we accept that many of us would like to see no tolls at all on the Severn crossings, and recognise that that would be a massive benefit...
Nick Ramsay: Cabinet Secretary, can I welcome your statement today—and that’s not just paying lip service to it; as you know, I genuinely welcome the potential that this framework offers Wales and, indeed, the UK for the future. As you know, I’ve been a full supporter of a fiscal framework for some time now, and since it became clear that tax devolution was with us, was going to happen, and there...
Nick Ramsay: Would the Member give way on that point?
Nick Ramsay: Thank you for giving way, Rhun. I fully understand that you have issues with this Bill. As other Members have said, it’s not perfect by any means. However, to dismiss the fiscal framework that we discussed earlier in the Cabinet Secretary’s statement as merely a positive—come on, we’ve been calling for Barnett reform for as long as I’ve been here, and for as long as you’ve been...
Nick Ramsay: Diolch, Presiding Officer. Today we are calling on the Welsh Government to provide more information regarding the £10 million additional funding for business rate relief announced before Christmas. The Valuation Office Agency’s business rate revaluation will result, as we know, in businesses in some parts of Wales facing huge hikes in their rates. Let’s be clear about what that means in...
Nick Ramsay: Thanks for giving way; I agree with everything you said there, Adam Price. Part of the problem is that, although the revaluation kicks in in April, a number of businesses are having to decide whether to sign their leases now, at this point in time, and, without knowing what sort of system of rate relief will be in place, what package of support will be in place for them in April, some of them...
Nick Ramsay: First Minister, this morning I attended the annual Farmers Union of Wales’s farmers breakfast in the Pierhead building, hosted by Paul Davies—an excellent event, as ever. Farmers were understandably eager for clarity on the system of farm payments to be created in the wake of the UK leaving the EU, when that eventually happens. Can you update us on your Government’s discussions with the...
Nick Ramsay: What actions is the Cabinet Secretary taking to support small businesses in Monmouthshire?
Nick Ramsay: I’m pleased to speak on what I thought was a consensual motion—I’m not so sure now, having listened to Neil McEvoy’s comments, but, hopefully, all parties in this Chamber can come together around certain key tenets of this motion. This has been an historic week, after all: the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of Milton Keynes new town—a brave new world of freedom, or the...
Nick Ramsay: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and also, as Janet Finch-Saunders said earlier, for the tone that you’ve set in this statement. It’s slightly different to that of your predecessor. You appear—I don’t mean Jane Hutt; I mean your local government predecessor—slightly more to be listening. That is really to be welcomed, and I think that has come out in the tone of this...
Nick Ramsay: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline his priorities for strengthening communities in Wales? OAQ(5)0098(CC)
Nick Ramsay: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. As I’m sure you’re aware, I have a short debate later today on the Cardiff capital city region deal. It won’t be you who will be responding; that will be the Cabinet Secretary for finance. In that debate, I’ll be raising the fact that it’s a deal with much potential for the future, and clearly, about growing connections between communities that will...
