Vaughan Gething: Yes. Both city deals are making good progress. The Swansea bay city deal is progressing well, with five projects approved and £54 million of city deal funding released. In Cardiff, the investment fund has so far committed £198 million across 12 projects, nine of which are already in delivery.
Vaughan Gething: I think there's a really pragmatic approach to be taken here, and actually the work that has been done on gathering regions together to recognise their common interests is part of doing this. And, look, we understand very well that Bridgend is in a position where it broadly looks east but not exclusively—that was a conversation we had about health board boundaries, for example—and making...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I want to thank Members for their contributions and for the opportunity to respond, and thank Hefin David for bringing the subject today, and I think he should be pleased and positive that the Government will vote in favour of the motion. [Interruption.] I know. [Laughter.] Since the beginning of the pandemic, our aim has been and continues to be to...
Vaughan Gething: Now, as we look towards economic recovery, we now have to consider how we make our services, including the support we provide through Business Wales, sharper and more tailored to the needs of firms and companies the length and breadth of Wales. And we certainly need to ensure that our businesses are prepared and supported as we continue the journey of having left the European Union and emerge...
Vaughan Gething: I recognise the incredibly difficult and uncertain circumstances currently being experienced by travel agencies. Supply chain businesses, including travel agencies, impacted by a greater than 60 per cent downturn in their turnover should consider an application to our economic resilience fund. The fund targets businesses that continue to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
Vaughan Gething: Between 2011 and 2020, the employment rate in Rhondda Cynon Taf increased by 4.8 percentage points and the unemployment rate fell from 10.4 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Vaughan Gething: Our £136 million Transforming Towns programme, alongside wider business support, is vital in assisting the economic and social recovery of our town centres. We have ambitious plans for our town/city centres, and our priority is to secure their long-term sustainability by driving footfall and making them attractive places to be.
Vaughan Gething: The review is in its infancy. Given the obvious crossover, our departments work very closely together. Once the panel has been established and provided its reports, I look forward to discussing the results with the Minister for Climate Change to take full advantage of the economic possibilities.
Vaughan Gething: The Welsh Government is fully supportive of the work of Banc Cambria as it continues its dialogue with the regulator and refines its proposition aiming to establish Banc Cambria as the first community bank in the UK.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. In June, this Senedd overwhelmingly agreed that the UK Government’s approach to European Union successor funds represented an assault on Welsh devolution. It is clear that these distant and poorly defined plans at present systematically exclude this Senedd on matters that its Members are elected to take decisions upon. We now face a vast reduction in funding this...
Vaughan Gething: And by making these funds solely available to competing local authority bids, the UK Government is also wilfully creating sector funding gaps, including among higher and further education, the third sector, and business. These sectors have previously maximised European Union funds to help close disparities in research and innovation, to support vulnerable people in society, and to help boost...
Vaughan Gething: Thank your for the series of questions. I'm pleased to note that he recognises the very practical concern that, regardless of the policy framework, the lack of decision making is a real handicap for local authorities of any and every political leadership here in Wales. I hope that decisions can be made, but, as I say, that is already compromising the ability to spend that money in time and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. I'll deal with your last point first, and that is that I'm afraid that it does matter what happens over the next month with the spending review, about our ability to take forward the commitments we've made. Our commitment to having a forward-looking science strategy and to maximise our opportunities in research, development and innovation is still there. But we...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and the questions. I do recall being a new Member to this institution, and shortly after the Member had been appointed to the Government, talking exactly of that experience—of working in the Council of Ministers, and having an agreed UK line, where Scottish and Welsh Ministers of different political persuasions to the UK Ministers still had a constructive and...
Vaughan Gething: We've had a constructive and grown-up conversation with the WLGA, with the varieties of political leadership that it represents, and, actually, one of the key asks of local government has been about the fact that they are significantly unimpressed with the time frame to put bids in, and, actually, the money itself you referred to didn't really make much difference, it was time. But it's also...
Vaughan Gething: It's odd about how long a departmental title is, and Michael Gove's LUHC department isn't one that I think will be judged on its title, but what it's actually prepared to do. I do know that Welsh local government has felt excluded from the process of even the engagement that took place up to this point in time, and that in itself is not at all helpful. The requests for meetings with Luke Hall...
Vaughan Gething: I think there are significant flaws in the way that the current process has worked, and it's certainly not a process that this Government supports at all. And I recognise what the Member says about where Gwynedd is, and also I see a Member representing the county of Bridgend who will also know about the exclusion of areas of Wales that are objectively less well-off than parts of England that...
Vaughan Gething: That is the message that we have tried to offer on a number of occasions and, to date, we have not had prompt or timely replies from the previous ministerial team. And I do hope that, with a new Secretary of State, there will be an opportunity to reset what we are able to do. And the point the Member makes about other partners is well put and, in many respects, those partners are trying to...
Vaughan Gething: I really don't think it's helpful to have Janet Finch-Saunders saying, 'Find deprivation, find Labour'. I think many people who live in less well-off communities will find that insulting. People make choices about how to vote and we are here to represent them. I do think, though, that, when it comes to the challenges that Michael Gove now faces, as I say, I think there is a point of...
Vaughan Gething: I think the Member will find that, if you compare the county of Flintshire to areas of England that are included, you'll find there is a significant disparity in wealth and opportunity, and it does not make sense that Flintshire is not included in the priority areas when more wealthy and prosperous areas of England are. If he wants to make an alternative case and celebrate the fact that...
