Ken Skates: Our priorities will continue to be to invest in skills, infrastructure and supporting business growth, aligned to a regional approach which will help deliver economic growth and prosperity for all.
Ken Skates: This afternoon I will be hosting a meeting with key private sector stakeholders, cabinet colleagues and senior officials to further develop the concept of an automotive technology park centred on Ebbw Vale. It will offer a platform for a range of technologies including ultra-low emission and connected vehicles.
Ken Skates: The first stage in this work programme has been undertaken. The stage two assessment on those stations that have been identified as a priority will look in more detail at the strength of the financial and economic case for a new railway station, including advice from Network Rail on deliverability.
Ken Skates: The national transport finance plan, published in July 201, sets out investment for transport and infrastructure and services for 2015-2020 across all parts of Wales.
Ken Skates: While in principle it would be desirable for Wales to have its own national team, there are several mitigating factors, both sporting and financial, which indicate that it would not be beneficial for cricket in Wales. This is ultimately a matter for Cricket Wales, the national governing body.
Ken Skates: The Welsh Government is working with Network Rail, in delivering investment to improve frequency of services along the Ebbw Vale line. We are also in the process of procuring a rail services contract that will improve services across Wales.
Ken Skates: I think the Member is absolutely right that a lot of small businesses are either unaware of the support that is available and has been available for some years or, alternatively, see so many offerings of support that it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees. The aim with bringing Business Wales and the development bank closer together is to ensure that there is clarity of direction for...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions, and also for congratulating us on the work undertaken to secure significant investment from CAF in my friend and colleague John Griffiths’s constituency? It’s going to be an important addition to our manufacturing base in Wales. For the first time, we’ll be building trains. It’s a very exciting project, and it’s also one that has enormous...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his question? Again, I agree entirely, it can’t just be a brass plaque on a building in Wrexham, it must have a fully-functioning operation there, with senior managers, and this point has been made repeatedly to Finance Wales and it will be reflected in August, when the location strategy is published. I’ve been assured that there will be senior management there...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions and begin with that very last point, the importance of ensuring that the development bank of Wales is a bank for the whole of Wales? In terms of the headquarters, the number of staff who will be located at the headquarters will amount to 50 within the next two years. We anticipate starting with 20, which will include senior management figures, but a...
Ken Skates: Thank you, Llywydd. I am delighted to announce today that we are delivering one of the key pledges contained in our programme for Government by creating the development bank of Wales. I’m particularly pleased that the development bank will address market failure across business finance by focusing support for micro, start-up and innovative businesses across Wales. This means that businesses...
Ken Skates: The development bank has an ambitious, five-year plan to generate more than £1 billion of investment to support the Welsh economy. It will help businesses to support over 5,500 jobs per annum. The development bank will significantly increase the availability of funding to SMEs to £80 million per annum within five years, compared with £56 million in 2016-17. It will increase the impact on...
Ken Skates: Yes, absolutely. I’ll check on exactly how the rolling stock can be configured. They are presented as five four-carriage trains, but my understanding is that they can be subdivided and lengthened or shortened as appropriate, but I will check on that and write to Members. In terms of how they can be used to then ensure that other rolling stock is compliant, well, essentially, they can...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank Vikki Howells for her questions, not just today, but questions that she’s raised on numerous occasions as we look to develop a franchise agreement that better suits the needs of her constituents and people across Wales. The Member is absolutely right: the nature of work and the way of life have both changed in Wales and around the world in recent decades, to the extent...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Jenny Rathbone for her questions? I’ll try to be as brief as possible, but the Member is absolutely right to say that carbon reduction targets must be stretching, and they will be for the entire course of the franchise. It’s essential that the metro enables, as the Member outlines, communities to be better linked so that people can travel as swiftly and seamlessly as possible...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Dai Lloyd for his question? But I think the premise is slightly wrong. The reason that we’ve intervened to support the rail network in the current time is because of the historic underfunding by UK Government in the infrastructure of the rail network, and also because the franchise agreement that was reached more than a decade ago was so poorly drawn up. The new franchise is...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Hannah Blythyn for her questions, specifically for the important point that she raised about cross-border collaboration in terms of rail travel? The Member will be aware of the Growth Track 360 prospectus, which has been put together by the cross-border rail taskforce, which includes representatives from Wales as well as from the Cheshire and Warrington local enterprise...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions and say that, in terms of the core Valleys lines, it’s absolutely essential that services are as frequent as possible, and not just that they are frequent, but they are also reliable? We’re mode agnostic during this process, but what we have said to the bidders is that we expect the transport that’s provided within the metro area to be fully...
Ken Skates: Can I take that final point first? I can assure the Member that the rolling stock will be available so that, as soon as possible in the new franchise, passengers will be able to experience improvements in terms of the quality of the trains that they’re carried on. In terms of the specification, I will endeavour to ensure that the requirements, when they are published as a summary document,...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for her questions and the keen interest that she has in rail transport across Wales? Until we have the powers that are equivalent to Scotland, the Member is right, we would not be able to enable public bodies to run our rail services. But I can tell her that in the new franchise—I think I’m on public record as saying that profits that have been earned in the current...
