3. 3. Statement: The Programme for Government — ‘Taking Wales Forward’

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:30 pm on 20 September 2016.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 3:30, 20 September 2016

In terms of child poverty, it wasn’t exactly helped by the bedroom tax or the cuts that were made to the welfare system, which his party has to take responsibility for. What I said earlier on is this: on many economic indicators, we have done incredibly well. The challenge is to keep on increasing our people’s collective gross domestic household income and, ultimately, gross domestic product. That is happening. The days when Wales was being sold as a cheap place to do business are long gone. The jobs that we are attracting are well-paid jobs, they’re committed to Wales, and that will see our GDP per head increase. Of that, I have no doubt over the medium term.

In terms of community assets, we’ve got no difficulty with co-production. We seek to work with people to draw on their expertise as to how we take that forward. In terms of the metro, the metro is there. We will work with all organisations in order to deliver it. Of course, the metro is designed to ensure that the economy of the north-east of Wales works in co-prosperity with the economy of the north-west of England—we know that the metro itself is not going to be self-contained in the north-east of Wales—in order to deliver prosperity for both regions.

In terms of autism, we’re not opposed to autism legislation in principle. That’s something that we will continue to explore, and he makes an interesting suggestion when it comes to British Sign Language and how we can ensure that BSL is better recognised and better entrenched in our community. That’s something on which we are happy to take views and keep an open mind.