Mike Hedges: Our spending review set up an unadjusted Welsh block grant from the Treasury through to 2024-25. This three-year budget is something many of us have been calling for for a very long time, and allows for longer term planning. Wales Fiscal Analysis estimate that, excluding COVID funding, the core budget for annual day-to-day expenditure by the Welsh Government will increase by £2.9 billion by...
Mike Hedges: I would like to ask for two statements. As someone who has continually asked about the public sector provision of supply teachers, I have long believed that supply teachers are being badly treated. I was very pleased to see the proposed action in the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru agreement. I would like a Government statement on where and how the option for a more sustainable model of...
Mike Hedges: The normal way to compare action and inaction is to have a control sample. Brazil and the southern states of the United States of America have given us such a control sample, but with catastrophic death rates in those countries. I'd like to raise two points: first, that action is taken against supermarkets and bus companies that are not enforcing mask wearing; and secondly, that the benefit...
Mike Hedges: I’d like to compare Swansea to its equivalent, Aarhus, which is the second-largest city in Denmark, and Mannheim, which is its twin city in Germany. The economic data for the two areas makes interesting but, as a Swansea bay resident, depressing reading. In Mannheim metropolitan region, its GVA is 147 per cent of the European average, but in Mannheim city, it’s 210 per cent, compared to...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Presiding Officer. There is a community of interest throughout the Swansea bay city region. Swansea was the largest city in western Europe to be a recipient of objective 1 funding. I have no pride in that whatsoever. Throughout the region, we have Port Talbot with steel, Llanelli with tinplate, Pembrokeshire with energy, Carmarthenshire with agriculture and Swansea with major...
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Minister for that response? I fully support the use of invest-to-save—it is a sensible way forward, especially when it reduces fixed costs. Can the Minister give an example of a successful invest-to-save scheme that has been extended to other areas, and how they expect it to achieve, and what has been learnt from that extension?
Mike Hedges: 2. Will the Minister provide an update on the effectiveness of the invest-to-save scheme? OQ57348
Mike Hedges: This is something that I've asked for over a period of time; it's a matter of serious concern. Like the Minister, who has got the development on the other side of the river, I've got the SA1 development, where a number of these properties are. One of the biggest problems, though, Minister, is that some of these were built by organisations that have gone out of business, such as Carillion,...
Mike Hedges: You said 'an ideal world'. Some of us know it as the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Mike Hedges: Food poverty exists. It certainly exists in east Swansea. What has surprised me has been foodbanks starting up in what I always thought of as the rich suburbs of west Swansea. Of the eight wards in Swansea East, six of them have foodbanks. The two that do not are very close to foodbanks in the neighbouring areas. The use of foodbanks was increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, has...
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Minister for that response? If the intention to reach a million Welsh speakers is going to be met, then getting more children being educated through the medium of Welsh is the best and easiest way of doing so. Does the Minister accept that Ti a Fi is the first step to learning Welsh for many children, especially those who come from English-speaking backgrounds? What further...
Mike Hedges: One of the major problems regarding inland water quality is discharge into rivers, which then goes into lakes. A serious concern raised with me by my constituents is Welsh water discharge into the River Tawe at the Trebanos treatment works in the Neath constituency, which affects water in my constituency, because the water from Trebanos comes down until it hits the sea in your constituency,...
Mike Hedges: 7. What support does the Welsh Government give to Mudiad Meithrin to provide Ti a Fi services? OQ57307
Mike Hedges: Firstly, can I welcome the statement? The property valuation is nearly 20 years out of date. It is almost certain that values will have gone up. There's also that values will have changed relative to other properties. Of course, the advantage of a tax on property values is that it's very difficult to avoid, compared to income tax. Council tax is set on band D and all other band payments are...
Mike Hedges: Can I also thank Rhianon for giving me a minute in this debate? Wales has a very proud musical tradition. In my constituency, we have male choirs, mixed choirs, ladies' choirs, all producing singing of the highest standard. We also have bands, although not as many as some of the neighbouring constituencies. Music is important to many people. I want to stress how important it is that...
Mike Hedges: I'll accept that; what I'm saying is that, in my opinion—and it's only my opinion, but that's what I've been paid to come here to give—it is not caused by irresponsible expenditure. Most poor people I know who are in debt, it's caused by an unexpected bill. It just happens. And funerals are the worst. I'll just go through a case I know. So, if I use male and female in this case, it's...
Mike Hedges: Can I just start off by saying I agree with everything Heledd Fychan has just said? And, unfortunately, I hope I don't repeat any of it during what I say here. I think it really is important that we think about people who are in debt. They're in debt because they're poor. Can I reply to Mark Isherwood? Debt is not caused by irresponsible expenditure, it's not caused by a lack of financial...
Mike Hedges: Will you take an intervention?
Mike Hedges: What I would also state is sometimes this debt is gaining more and more interest, and it's getting bigger and bigger. When people couldn't afford to pay it in the beginning, making it bigger and bigger only makes matters worse and worse. Thank you.
Mike Hedges: People on social media do not look like the people on social media in terms of their photograph. Many have been Photoshopped and many have used filters to make themselves look an awful lot better. Can I just say that eating disorders, like all other mental health services, are under increasing pressures? It has been reported that eating disorder services across Wales are experiencing...
