Adam Price: Last week, the Welsh Government announced two new business investment funds of £7 million each. The application deadline is in just five weeks’ time. The same thing happened with the growth and prosperity fund last year. It was announced on 17 September last year and the deadline for the large applications was just four weeks later. The Scottish Government has created a £500 million fund...
Adam Price: I’m very grateful to the Chair of the committee—collaborative and consensual as ever. I think the key point was the role of a national infrastructure commission, if, in the remit letter, it has clear guidance from the Welsh Government that we need to equalise the levels of infrastructure investment across the regions, and, absolutely—echoing the point made by Hefin David—as well...
Adam Price: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way?
Adam Price: When has anyone, I think, in this Chamber, actually called for less investment in south-east Wales or in any part of Wales? The point is to get investment up in the other regions as well. We’ve provided him with some innovative methods whereby he could do that.
Adam Price: I think that, as the Chair has highlighted, while it is welcome to see the Government’s positive response to some of the recommendations, there is some disagreement about the role and the remit of the national infrastructure commission, and some of that disagreement is fundamental. It goes to the very heart of what problem the commission is trying to solve. You wouldn’t necessarily know...
Adam Price: We had a perhaps less considered dialogue a few days ago across this Chamber on the question of the balance of investment by Welsh Government across our regions, and let me emphasise that there is nothing I would say that would be anti-Cardiff in any sense, but would the Cabinet Secretary be willing to commission research so that we have statistics to look at the gulf that exists and has been...
Adam Price: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his considered response. Now, we heard in the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee this morning some concern expressed by the Bevan Foundation, for example, and by Professor Karel Williams, that there is an overdependence on the model and the map, which is, in the south, based on the city regions, and, in the north, based on the growth deal...
Adam Price: Could we stay with the White Paper, Llywydd, and the recommendation on the regional map for Wales? It’s 20 years—I almost can’t believe it—since I was commissioned, along with Professor Kevin Morgan, by the Secretary of State at that time, Ron Davies, to redesign the regional map for Wales in terms of NUTS II, to create a Valleys and west Wales region, and an east Wales region, in...
Adam Price: What assurance can she give my party and Members on all sides who represent those regions that we will have equal investment for all parts of Wales so that we can see prosperity shared across our country?
Adam Price: The Government’s own figures show that the level of Welsh Government’s capital expenditure on infrastructure in south-east Wales is twice that per head in north Wales, and three times the figure for mid and west Wales. I mean, it’s concern over that huge investment gap that led my party to vote against the supplementary budget last week. What assurance—[Interruption.] What...
Adam Price: Notwithstanding the point made by the Member for the Cynon Valley, this is fundamentally an unfair tax. It’s wreaking economic carnage on our high streets. Isn’t it time just to scrap this tax altogether and replace it with something like an internet sales tax?
Adam Price: 3. Will the First Minister commit to taking steps to equalise the level of government investment in all parts of Wales? OAQ(5)0506(FM)
Adam Price: It’s a pleasure to follow the Member for Llanelli and I congratulate him and his colleagues for securing this important opportunity to create some space for new thinking, for the reasons that he has eloquently outlined—we certainly need them, don’t we? I think Karel Williams has said that there’s a word in Welsh for actually repeating the same mistake over and over again, it’s...
Adam Price: The Government has committed, from this April onwards, I believe, to ensuring that 100 per cent of energy in the public sector comes from renewable sources. Would it be possible to take a step further and have a target for the whole of Wales, and ensure that 100 per cent of all of our energy needs are provided from renewable sources within 20 years?
Adam Price: A point of order, Llywydd—
Adam Price: First of all, I would like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement and also thank the Chair of the Finance Committee for sharing his committee’s comments on the second supplementary budget for this current financial year. Generally speaking, I would endorse the main recommendations made by the committee, outlined by my colleague Simon Thomas, and specifically emphasise the need to...
Adam Price: One of the frustrations is that qualified students from Wales who want to be trained in Wales in our medical schools don’t have the opportunity to undertake that training. When we look at the percentages in England, 80 per cent of the students in medical schools are from England, 50 per cent in Scotland, for example, but only 20 per cent in Wales. Could we guarantee that all Welsh domiciled...
Adam Price: The agreement announced yesterday between the Welsh Government and Heathrow Airport is welcome. But, in stark contrast to that published in relation to Scotland, there are no concrete targets in the agreement, nothing on the amount of construction-related spend, nothing about the overall jobs target, nothing about landing charges or a development fund for flights. Is that because,...
Adam Price: The other variable identified as part of this study of global economic competitiveness is the level of business innovation—research and development. Over a year ago, his predecessor commissioned a second-stage report on creating a dedicated national innovation body for Wales, to drive up our level of R&D, both in the private sector and in higher education. Can he report on some progress on...
Adam Price: As a nation, of course, we will always have limited resources—indeed, scarcity, of course, is one of the fundamental principles within economics—so we need to be absolutely clear that we’re investing those scarce resources in the right areas, where they’re going to have the greatest impact. Can I invite the Cabinet Secretary, as he devises and refines his economic strategy, to look at...
