Vaughan Gething: Thank you. We have a suite of business-support products available through the Business Wales service to support start-ups with a variety of subjects, from hiring staff to identifying appropriate finance. Providing start-up opportunities is also a key strand of the young person's guarantee offer.
Vaughan Gething: That's part of the reason why it's been so important to try to maintain the investment in not just skills, but also in the business support service that we provide through Business Wales, because we can provide a bespoke package of support, for either individuals or for particular areas. Now, I think that would be something that would be well worth exploring between my officials and RCT, as...
Vaughan Gething: Well, some of the schemes that we're going to provide should bear fruit rather more immediately. For example, we've got the opportunity to carry on supporting young entrepreneurs through Big Ideas Wales—you can see those people starting up their businesses; you can see the barriers to employment fund that we're providing. So, you'll find some of them will have a more immediate impact and...
Vaughan Gething: I'd be very happy to provide a further note to Members on this, because, actually, every time we have looked in the past, certainly in my membership of this place, we've actually found that apprenticeship outcomes for people in Wales compare very favourably with other parts of the UK, in particular across the border in England. You can find more people completing their apprenticeships and...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. Well, we think we're going to lose about £1 billion up to the end of the financial year 2024, £1 billion that should have come to Wales to be spent in Wales, and, of course, previously, that Ministers here would have had responsibility for making those choices and we would have been accountable to Members elected to this Parliament for those choices. We know that money both isn't going...
Vaughan Gething: We are investing £1.7 billion in the young person's guarantee over the next three years. Working Wales is the single gateway for access to the guarantee, including Jobs Growth Wales, Communities for Work Plus and apprenticeships. Working Wales is also trialling a new job-matching service to assist with securing employment.
Vaughan Gething: I completely agree, and I did see some of the report on Channel 4, and it was deeply upsetting, not just because of the people facing that position, because I know that I will have constituents in the southern part of the city of Cardiff who are equally facing really significant challenge in how they're going to meet their own household incomings and outgoings and are genuinely fearful for...
Vaughan Gething: Well, it depends where businesses are, in which sector they're operating, as to the particular pressures they've got, but everyone is going to face some of the challenges about the increases in energy prices, for example. So, there is a really significant challenge. As we're, hopefully, coming out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, businesses are looking from survival to the future, and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the points and the series of questions. I think it's interesting, the point about wage growth, because even at the start of this week, there was a suggestion that we would see significant wage growth figures coming through, and yet the figures actually showed that wages had not kept pace with inflation. And I think the previous comments of the Governor of the Bank of England...
Vaughan Gething: Our economic policies span all ministerial responsibilities, including those related to energy, housing and social justice. I continue to work with Cabinet colleagues to make sure that every pound available goes out to deliver for those who are at the sharpest end facing the Conservative cost-of-living crisis.
Vaughan Gething: I'd be more than happy to have a direct conversation with the Member about the future of Tech Valleys, about the challenges and the opportunities for the Heads of the Valleys area. Work, I know, is taking place between five local authorities on how to maximise investment and employment opportunities, because it is the area with the most concentrated disadvantage in the whole of Wales, and we...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I should congratulate the Member. That is the first time that a Conservative Member in this place has said that it should not be acceptable that Wales loses money from the change from European structural funds. That's a very welcome statement. The trouble is the Chancellor's plan shows that Wales is undeniably going to lose money, moving forward, because the whole UK shared prosperity...
Vaughan Gething: Well, the Welsh Government has been very, very clear that the UK Government conduct falls far short of its repeated promises in a number of guises, and we're due to lose £1 billion. That's what Wales is going to lose over the next few years—£1 billion. And I don't see how any reasonable person could defend that, regardless of their politics. I don't think anyone came into this place to...
Vaughan Gething: Based on the Welsh allocation of this year's community renewal fund, which, as you know, is a forerunner to the shared prosperity fund, Wales could receive around £90 million from the shared prosperity fund in the next financial year. This plainly falls well short of the UK Government's repeated promises, including the specific manifesto pledge from 2019, to fully replace EU structural...
Vaughan Gething: Well, there's no suggestion that job opportunities have been missed out on with this site. We would have wanted to see more jobs placed on this site, but there's no evidence that jobs that would have come to north Wales haven't. I'm looking forward to having jobs on the site and to having good-quality jobs, and there are conversations with the north Wales economic ambition board and that's...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I can't give you an exact date on when the actual first job will be on site, because we're still having conversations with those partners and we can't surface all of those in public with named parties, but I've had an update from my officials and I think there is good cause to expect news in the not-too-distant future for jobs to go on that site. And, of course, the Member will be aware...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. Over the last 12 months we have received significant interest on our development land at Parc Bryn Cegin. We are currently engaged with the local authority and a number of separate parties who have made or are looking to make offers to buy development plots at Bryn Cegin.
Vaughan Gething: Our Net Zero Wales plan includes an Industry and Business chapter setting out action for a quicker transition to renewable energy and better energy efficiency practices. Action includes our business productivity enhancement programme that businesses in South Wales Central have accessed to provide a diagnostic to become greener and more competitive.
Vaughan Gething: The shared prosperity fund will have far greater potential for Wales if the UK Government works with us to implement the Welsh framework for regional investment that has been co-designed with stakeholders, supported by a public consultation and endorsed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Vaughan Gething: Our 'town centre first' policy, embedded in our national planning framework, 'Future Wales', means that town centres should be the first consideration for all decisions on the location of workplaces and services in order to support local economies.
