The following amendment has been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

We move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the Welsh Conservative debate on the programme for government. I call on Andrew R.T. Davies to move the motion.

Motion NDM6102 Paul Davies

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Believes that the First Minister’s Programme for Government does not provide the confidence or detail required to improve the life chances of people in communities across Wales.

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to outline how it intends to deliver its Programme for Government within its budget.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It’s a pleasure to move the motion on the order paper this afternoon in the name of Paul Davies. I had hoped that the First Minister would be here to respond to the debate. I presume it must be the leader of the house who is responding to the debate instead this afternoon.

The motion on the order paper looks at the First Minister’s programme for government and states that it

‘does not provide the confidence or detail required to improve the life chances of people in communities across Wales’, and also calls on the Welsh Government to outline how it intends to deliver its programme for government within its budget. I don’t think those two points are unreasonable, to be honest with you. I think they are what most people would expect from any programme for government. But then, when this was presented to us last week, at 15 pages in total, including the front cover, with all the intellectual might of the nationalist party and the governing party, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats, talking through the summer—and this is the best that they could come up with.

As I said in my response to the statement last week from the First Minister, I generally wished the Government well in its delivery programme because, actually, it is the people and communities of Wales that get let down when these initiatives aren’t carried through and aren’t delivered to the very people who require them to be delivered in health, education and the economy. But, if you just look through this document, it is impossible to actually see how the Government proposes to take Wales forward, as the front page talks about.

The UK Government, for example, is not even mentioned once in this document. Yet, the largest constitutional issue that this country faces, the Brexit question, is in everyone’s mind. Ultimately, there is no mention here at all of how the Welsh Government will be taking forward its discussions and its negotiations around structural funding, around university funding, around rural-development funding—and that’s quite remarkable for a document that is supposed to encapsulate the workings of the Government for the next five years. This isn’t 12 months, this isn’t six months; this is five years’ worth of work in 15 pages. That has to be something that the Government really do need to reflect on. Hence that’s why the motion that we’ve put down today calls for the lack of confidence that we do have in the Government’s ability to actually take forward many of the initiatives that they’ve outlined.

Only earlier this afternoon, for example, there was a debate on bovine TB in this Chamber, which many Members from all the parties participated in. Bovine TB is not even mentioned in this programme for government. No mention at all. Yet, when you talk to the agricultural sector and the unions as well—and Wales is renowned for its livestock production—that is the one big-ticket item that they are looking for from the Government, for a response, for a way forward. Yet, within its programme for government, it has found itself unable to even mention the words ‘bovine TB’.

If I go back to the point about the UK Government’s role in working with the Welsh Government to deliver projects—. The apprenticeship levy, for example: a huge change, a huge transformation in the way apprenticeships and training opportunities will be developed, but, again, no mention at all in this programme for government as to how you will be working to take forward the apprenticeship levy. I’ve spoken to two major companies this week who have indicated that, given the shambolic response from the Welsh Government in relation to the apprenticeship levy, it’s going to be easier for them just to shut their training places rather than to continue them. What response are we going to receive from the Welsh Government to give us the assurances that you’re not working on the sidelines and you are actually on the field of play?

Then, you look also at the cross-border services issue where, again, the UK Government has a huge role to play in developing a coherent cross-border-services strategy for constituents in my colleague Russell George’s constituency, for example, and many other constituencies, especially in north Wales, where many intensive services, neurological services, for example, are dependent on good cross-border relationships—in particular, around the economy, for example, where the north Wales growth deal is dependent on that cross-border connection.

Again, the ‘Taking Wales Forward’ document, which I hold in my hand, does not mention whatsoever any type of relationship or understanding of how these strategies will be taken forward. So, it really now is incumbent on the Government here to actually address, over the coming weeks, before the Christmas recess, how it can give anyone confidence that this is a serious programme for government, that it will deliver on its aspirations and, ultimately, we will not just have the same repetition of the previous programmes for government that have been delivered by successive Labour Governments that regrettably see us as an economic failure in many parts of Wales because of various strategies that the Labour Government have brought forward. Educationally, regrettably, on the PISA rankings, we’ve gone backwards. And in health, we have the longest waiting times anywhere in the United Kingdom. That isn’t an unreasonable proposition to put at the outset of a Government’s term.

What are you going to actually do on the three big questions? What are you going to do to improve economic performance across Wales so that communities across Wales do not remain poorer than parts of Bulgaria or Romania? What are you going to be doing to improve education attainment levels so that, ultimately, we are not propping up the PISA ranking tables, but we are actually seen as trailblazers? Because, in fairness to the previous education Minister, Leighton Andrews, he did have an aspiration. He might have been mocked for that aspiration of getting Wales into the top 20, but it was a noble aspiration to have, because you could actually say, ‘Well, at least he wants to project Wales going forward’.

This document doesn’t offer anything whatsoever in wanting to push Wales forward in the field of education. It just wants to continue to manage the decline. Well, that just is not good enough—it is just not good enough. When you look at what is going on in the health service, and in particular the chronic waiting times that see one in seven people in Wales on an NHS waiting list, there is no way forward within this programme for government on how those waiting lists are going to be curtailed and what progress we are going to see. [Interruption.] I will gladly give ground to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children.

I’m very grateful. The Member has been talking about England a lot. Angela said in the previous debate that we shouldn’t reflect on England and what they’re doing in England. Maybe the Member would like to tell us what the junior doctors are doing in England and not in Wales.

The junior doctors are developing a seven-day NHS that will get rid of premature deaths on weekends, that will deliver a service that acute hospitals will deliver, and that will make sure that waiting times come down in England, because they’re already under what we have here in Wales. Just in case you haven’t caught up with the news, actually the courts have judged today that the UK Government has the right to impose that contract that will deliver a seven-day NHS. You might disagree with a seven-day NHS, but at least the UK Government have put—[Interruption.] At least the UK Government have put on the table what their aspirations are. What have you done in this document? Fifteen pages of just fine words, but little or no substance. That cannot be a Government that is—[Interruption.] I will not take an intervention at the moment. If I have time, I will take it a little later, Joyce. But that cannot be sign of a confident Government—a Government that is brimming with ideas. You are in the early part of your tenure—your five years to change the landscape of Wales—and you just have not succeeded in doing that with this document.

Today, for example, we’ve had the European external advisory committee put together. On page 14, the document states

‘Work to ensure that membership of our democratic bodies better reflect the whole of society and improve equal representation on elected bodies and public sector boards’.

There is not one ethnic minority candidate on that board—not one. Only 28 per cent of the board are women, and there are two representatives from north Wales. How is that meeting what is, most probably, the most basic aspiration within this document? If you can’t meet the most basic aspiration of the document, how on earth are you going to be able to deliver the more complicated and more knotty issues that need undoing?

In particular, the most galling thing in this document is the identification that there is a postcode lottery when it comes to drugs and waiting times in Wales. Who’s been running the NHS for 17 years in Wales? You have done nothing for 17 years, and yet you’re pointing out in your own document that there is a lottery existing in Wales. You’ve failed to do it for the first 17—what confidence can we have that you will succeed in unpicking that with this document that you’ve laid before us?

So, I put it to the house tonight that what needs to happen here today is that the house does come together, sends a clear message to the governing party to show our lack of confidence in this document and calls on the Government to bring forward a more coherent strategy of governing Wales and of taking Wales forward with a strategy that can be delivered, that will deliver a decline in waiting times, that will deliver an improvement in education and, above all, that will deliver prosperity to all parts of Wales. If Members of this house on the opposition benches choose to try to scupper this motion or vote with the Government, then we really can see the crocodile tears behind the sentiments that, from time to time, they stress within this place.

This is a simple document that needs to be torn down and replaced with something that is more substantial, that can be benchmarked and that can deliver the real gains that Wales desperately needs in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Anything less and the people of Wales will have been let down and it’ll be another wasted five years. I move the motion today and I urge support for the motion before you.

Thank you very much. I have selected the amendment to the motion and I call on Adam Price to move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth. Adam.

Amendment 1—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Believes that Plaid Cymru’s Programme for Opposition sets out a more ambitious and comprehensive agenda for Wales during the fifth Assembly.

Amendment 1 moved.

Thank you, madam Deputy Presiding Officer. I agree with the leader of the Conservatives: this is a very flimsy programme, given that all the power and ability of the civil service is behind the Government. We have produced our own ideas in the programme for opposition and there is reference to that in our amendment. There are more ideas contained there than in the Welsh Government’s programme for government, which is disgraceful. I know that size isn’t everything, of course, but 16 pages to cover five years of a governmental programme at a crucial time in the history of Wales. Now, if you compare that with what the Government did five years ago—and it was this Government—there were 51 pages. We can look to Scotland—89 pages; Northern Ireland—113, and that’s just the draft programme. And, of course, it goes deeper than that. As the leader of the Welsh Conservatives said, we’ve gone down from the previous programme for government, where there were 12 specific policies areas. We are now down to just four headings, and no targets at all. The previous Government had 122 result indicators—a little jargon-ridden, but at least they were there. There were 224 tracking indicators. Now, what the difference is between the two, I don’t know, but at least there were clear targets, so that we, in this place, and most importantly the citizens of Wales could actually track the attainment of Government year on year. Of course, there were annual reports on that programme for government setting out attainment against those targets, but no targets—[Interruption.] Yes.

I’m grateful to the Member for taking the intervention. Would the Member consider withdrawing his amendment tonight, because, obviously, I do take the point that you want to progress your alternative vision and obviously your programme for opposition, but by submitting your amendment the opposition will fragment and we will not be able to obviously cast a joined-up view to show our lack of confidence in the programme for government that has been tabled by the governing party?

I hope the Member will understand why—. I don’t want to do that, because, of course, we support our own programme for opposition. But I’m happy to confirm that we will support the Conservative motion, because we do have to hold this Government to account for a poor programme for government—a programme that is vacuous when Wales deserves better.

To put it in very simple terms, there are no performance data attached to anything that the Welsh Government is saying in this programme for government. I was looking through the document for figures; there are very few figures contained in it: 20,000 affordable homes—that was in their manifesto, of course—cutting smoking rates in Wales down to 16 per cent. Now, in the whole document, there are only two such targets to be attained—and 100,000 apprenticeships—just two or three targets, as compared with the hundreds of indicators that were listed in the previous programme for government. There are a few targets, of course, that take us up until the middle of the next century—1 million Welsh speakers, for example. Well, those aren’t real targets where you can hold the Government to account in a five-year term.

Even if we look at the language, as has been said, this is mealy-mouthed weak, very open-ended, with many mentions of ‘promoting’, ‘supporting’ and ‘working towards’. Well, you can work towards something until the cows come home. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone. To ordinary people, certainly, it means nothing. It’s difficult to disagree with much of what’s contained here, but none of us have any idea what it actually means, and what yardsticks are in place so that we can know whether they’ve made attainments.

Ac nid ni’n unig sy’n dweud hynny—ond y Sefydliad Materion Cymreig, Undeb Cenedlaethol yr Athrawon, y Gymdeithas Diwygio Etholiadol, Cartrefi Cymunedol Cymru, ac yn y blaen. Yn seiliedig ar y ddogfen hon, mae yna ddiffyg arweinyddiaeth, fel y gwelsom, o adael yr UE i TB gwartheg, ac ar sail y ddogfen hon, mae perygl mai hon fydd y Llywodraeth wannaf, y Llywodraeth waethaf a gawsom, o bosibl, ers dyddiau Alun Michael. Nid yw’n drywydd ar gyfer y dyfodol—nid yw’n mynd â ni i unman yn arbennig. Ac os na allwn gael Llywodraeth yn lle hon ar hyn o bryd, yna mater i ni fel deddfwrfa yw gwneud ein gorau i geisio ei hachub rhag y diffyg llwyr o syniadau sydd yn y ddogfen hon ar hyn o bryd.

In 2012 I was given leave to introduce an enterprise Bill in this Assembly. The aim of my Bill was to propose a series of measures to boost economic growth, employment, procurement and skills. These measures, I believe, would have increased prosperity and tackled community deprivation in Wales. Sadly, my Bill did not succeed in passing into law. Now, four years later, the Welsh Government has brought forward its five-year plan. They claim their programme will foster the conditions needed to allow businesses to thrive and to create high-quality jobs. This will be done by promoting manufacturing and reducing the burden on business. Well, better late than never. There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 ones who do not need to.

As ever, the devil is in the detail. But there is precious little detail in this document as to how they will improve the life chances of people in communities across Wales. The Welsh Government pledges to create a minimum of 100,000 high-quality, all-age apprenticeships in Wales. The skills Minister said in June that the target for apprentices had been built into the current budget allocation to apprenticeship providers. But in this Chamber, the Minister said, and this is his quote:

‘I am not going to be drawn into making commitments to numbers that cannot be delivered’.

So, what guarantees do we have that this pledge will be delivered and how will the Welsh Government monitor progress towards its goals?

They also commit to reshaping employability for job-ready individuals and those furthest from the job labour market to acquire the skills and experience to gain and maintain sustainable employment. Again, no detail is given. There is no reference to how the apprenticeships will be focused on specific skills. The Welsh economy is facing a serious skill shortage. More than 70 per cent of Welsh businesses experienced difficulty in recruiting the right staff last year. Sixty-one per cent fear that they will not be able to recruit enough high-skilled workers to meet demand and to grow.

How will the Welsh Government tackle issues of gender inequalities in work-based learning and apprenticeship schemes? Older people in Wales are often those who are in greater need of retraining and employability support. They make an immense contribution to economic and social life in Wales, yet they are marginalised by the Welsh Government when it comes to assessing, learning, training and upskilling opportunities. Jobs Growth Wales automatically discriminates against older people by funding employers to take on people aged between 16 and 24 only. How will the Welsh Government tackle this problem of age discrimination? I believe there should be greater collaboration between education and business to ensure young people leave school with work-ready skills. We need greater targeting to ensure that the sustainability of skills is addressed in our future needs in Wales.

It is also vital to take full economic advantage of large infrastructure projects, such as the Swansea bay tidal lagoon and the M4 relief road. The M4 in its current state is not fit-for-purpose. Increasing level of congestion on the road is a huge barrier to economic growth in south Wales and the entirety of Wales. Yet, this vital project has been the subject of dither and delay by the Government. The programme for government commits to building infrastructure to keep Wales moving. We can only hope this means delivering on the M4 relief road.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I hope that the next five years will produce fruit worthy of repentance by this Government. Thank you.

I’m very pleased to speak in this debate to support the Government’s programme. I think the opposition parties have protested a bit too much this afternoon and protested a bit too much about the size of the document, which I don’t really see is the key issue—rather it is the long-term plans and I’m very pleased to speak in support of those plans today.

Obviously, we are in difficult circumstances. We have uncertainty about the EU situation and, of course, we have experienced the relentless budget cuts from Westminster. So, in this sort of time, I think it’s even more important that we have imaginative and ambitious programmes that have spin-offs that permeate different parts of society and help the people of Wales who come to us, to our surgeries, looking for help and opportunities, and to those people who come to my surgeries this offers a lot.

So, I’m going to address most of my remarks to the proposal to extend childcare for three and four-year-olds—extending the number of hours from 10 hours a week to 30 hours of free childcare a week for 48 weeks of the year. Shall I just say that those 10 hours that already exist are in the foundation phase, and can I also say that the foundation phase was a groundbreaking initiative that this Assembly—this Labour-led Government—delivered? So, I’d like to make the point that there have been great achievements from this Government and that that needs to be recognised.

So, we’ve already got the 10 hours in the foundation phase and that’s going to be increased to 30 hours for 48 weeks of the year. That is one of the absolutely key issues. It’s 48 weeks of the year, so it’s not just term-time cover, and I think it’s absolutely vital to parents as it takes into account that most people who work only have four weeks holiday per year. It is an ambitious pledge, but it will transform the lives of families. It will affect rates of employment, it will boost the economy, it will unleash the talents of many parents—many of them women—as well as providing first-class educational and care opportunities for the children. So, I think that this is an ambitious, challenging programme. I know that my constituents are absolutely thrilled that this opportunity is going to be offered, so I think the opposition parties should really consider that.

Also, in England the childcare offer is—[Interruption.] In a minute. In England, the childcare offer is for 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, and in Scotland it’s 16 hours a week only for term time. So, I know we don’t want to go into too much comparison, but definitely this childcare offer is the best offer in the UK.

Thank you to the Member for Cardiff North for taking my intervention. I agree with you entirely: childcare is a really important offer that the Government can make and it’s something that all parties had an offer on the table for. You, obviously, were the biggest party, so your offer will be the one that you’ll be charged with delivering. But, this document doesn’t say how it’s going to be delivered, the timeline for delivery, the budget for delivery, or exactly what the categorisation will be. So, we support the offer, but let’s just have a bit of meat on exactly how it’s going to be unfolded. Surely, that’s not unreasonable to ask in our questions.

This is a headline document. Obviously, all that discussion and debate and detail will take place, and what I think we should be doing today is addressing the merits of what’s in that document. I was actually speaking to a constituent this morning who was saying that there was a very high-quality nursery in Cardiff North that she wanted her child to go to, but the child couldn’t go there because it was only term time. So, I think the details of this proposal are very important.

I think it’s very important that when we do develop the details that the model is developed flexibly, because it will be added on to the existing 10 hours of the foundation phase, which I know is logistically very challenging to many parents because it’s difficult to access if it’s only two hours a day as it is delivered at the moment. So, I hope it will be flexibly done, so that child minders, play groups and nurseries are recognised as childcare providers that would be eligible for this money, because it’s got to be worked in together with the foundation phase and we do need a mix of settings.

I think it’s very important that we do recognise that to pay for childcare in Wales is very expensive. A 2016 report by Chwarae Teg estimates that for full-time jobs, based on five days of nursery and a child minder, the cost of childcare is 32 per cent of an average man’s salary and 37 per cent of an average woman’s. So, the cost is very high for childcare in Wales. So, this, I think, is a fantastically important policy, and I’m very proud that the Labour Government has put this forward as part of the key elements of its programme for government.

I am pleased to take part in this Conservative debate this afternoon. What I find disappointing is that when I read the Welsh Government’s programme for government, it just clearly fails to set out what they will do differently—differently—this time around to ensure that their aims are delivered effectively. The programme for government contains no targets for delivery on which the Welsh Government can be held to account, and no detail about when, where and how they are actually going to deliver the Welsh Government’s aims to support business or promote digital connectivity and deliver a transport network that’s fit for purpose for the twenty-first century. The aims are good; there are plenty of aims in the document, but aims are no good unless they have the detail with them about how they’re going to be achieved. Julie Morgan, I appreciate the size of the document doesn’t matter to you, but surely it does, and that’s what’s important here. Adam Price, I thought, very well brought out the comparisons between the past programmes for government and the programmes for government in other nations with the very small document that we were presented with last week.

With regard to business, as well, there’s been no commitment to raise the threshold—. Sorry, I was going to say that what the Welsh Government say in their programme for government, which I very much welcome, is that they’re going to deliver a tax cut for smaller businesses, for their bills to come down, and they’ll deliver that to 70,000 businesses. Well, that’s great, but there’s no detail about how that’s going to be achieved and there’s no detail or commitment to raise the threshold for the 100 per cent small business rate relief from the £6,000 rateable value. Now, business rates have been devolved since April 2015, but we’re still waiting for action, and our small businesses are crying out for support.

On digital connectivity, there is a lack of mention of how the Welsh Government’s going to play its part in extending mobile coverage to communities that have no coverage at all, or how it’s going to support better 4G and 5G mobile coverage. What I would suggest is that the Government looks at the Scottish Government. They’ve got detailed plans in this area and perhaps they could take a lesson from them. The Welsh Government also offers good, fast, reliable broadband, but there’s no timetable attached to that and there’s no definition, crucially, of what ‘fast’ and ‘reliable’ mean. I know the current goal is for 96 per cent of properties to have superfast broadband by June of this year, but the reality is that 50 per cent of properties in rural Wales now still have no access to superfast broadband. That’s 50 per cent. The final evaluation of the next generation of the Broadband Wales programme was published earlier today, and that highlights some significant concerns, including issues with the availability of historical and forward-looking information from BT, and criticism that the marketing and communications on the timetable for the roll-out have been inconsistent. It would therefore be helpful to learn how the Welsh Government intends to implement the report’s four recommendations.

It would also be good to have information and details on what Transport for Wales is going to do and how that will work with the national infrastructure commission that is being set up as part of the deal between Plaid and Labour. How it is going to work? How is the national infrastructure commission going to work with Transport for Wales, or is this just going to be the creation of more administration? So, how will each of these roles be defined?

Also, I noticed that some other big issues are missing from the programme for government. Andrew R.T. has mentioned that there’s no mention of tackling bovine TB. It’s scandalous not to mention that in the programme for government, given how much that affects many of our farming communities up and down rural Wales. There’s little mention of rural Wales in the programme for government. I think that’s particularly disappointing to large areas of Wales. And there’s no mention of supporting the steel industry, I also noticed, in the programme for government. So, in conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, there does seem to be a lack of ambition. If I’m wrong, I certainly can’t see it in the document that we were presented with last week.

I don’t want to labour the issue of the lack of pages, because Julie’s already taken umbrage with that, but even if we accept it’s only 16 pages long, even within its small size, there is a certain lack of content within it. I wasn’t here five years ago, but I’m told that the equivalent document then was 600 pages long. That does seem to indicate a certain shortcoming in some area.

Will you give way?

Yes, sure.

There were lots of complaints, then, that it was too long. [Laughter.]

Perhaps they have overcompensated in that instance. Maybe they should have struck a balance somewhere in the middle. [Assembly Members: ‘Ah.’]

Member of the Senedd:

Quite right. [Interruption.]

Carry on.

There was also something, I believe, in the previous Assembly, called a delivery unit. It’s no longer with us, as far as I know. It appears to have delivered nothing, as very few targets were met, and was thus itself delivered into oblivion. So, now, the targets have largely disappeared, and what we are left with is a catalogue of vague ambitions and no means of monitoring how far we can successfully achieve them.

Lots and lots of public money is spent on the Labour Government’s pet projects, but how effective are these projects? We’ve recently had significant evidence that one of their major schemes, Jobs Growth Wales, was not having any economic impact whatsoever. This ties in with Oscar’s comments regarding the skills shortage and the way in which we failed to produce college leavers with work-ready skills. How is this going to be addressed in future?

The First Minister has been in the habit lately of telling us not to rely on anecdotes, but rather, that we should rely on evidence. We shouldn’t denigrate evidence. Does the Minister here today agree that this document, with its lack of targets, demonstrates a total retreat by this Government from the need to conform to targets and evidence?

I feel as if I’m in a privileged position, as the housing spokesperson, because there is a commitment—a specific commitment—in the programme for government that I can react to. In fact, I was quite pleased—possibly even excited—when I read that the Welsh Government aims to deliver 20,000 additional affordable homes during this Assembly term. I then looked into this in a little more detail, and I pressed the First Minister. Unfortunately, I was too far down the order paper yesterday to actually get called, but as is our practice, my oral question was then subject to a written answer from the First Minister. He has stated that the commitment for 20,000 additional affordable homes leaves the Welsh Government’s general target for new homes built every year in Wales unchanged. It remains at 8,700—although, you’re not achieving that, incidentally. I have to say that I find it very strange that, in the programme for government, there’s a commitment to building additional affordable homes, and yet the general target for house building is unchanged. It’s been roughly what it is now for five years. Perhaps greater minds than mine will be able to cope with this sort of level of paradox, but I do hope that the Minister can give us some clarification later when she responds.

This is not a trivial point. We are facing a housing crisis. It’s one that’s gone on for a number of years. In the run-up to the Assembly elections, the Confederation of British Industry said,

‘For too many years, we’ve not been building the new homes Wales needs. This has led to rising prices, undermining our economic competitiveness and Wales’ reputation as a destination for investment.’

I completely agree with that. Also, house building is an excellent economic multiplier. It uses local resources, local labour, largely, and many SMEs, and we should be building more homes at the moment.

Evidence points to the need to build at least 12,000 homes a year in Wales, and when I saw the commitment to build an additional 20,000 affordable homes in this Assembly term, I thought, ‘Ah, they’ve now accepted the target of at least 12,000 homes. At last there is a real advance here, and we can welcome it’. Because that would take your target up to 12,700. But no. Somehow, the word ‘additional’ in the First Minister’s dictionary means something different to what the rest of us, I suspect, take as its common meaning.

Unsurprisingly, the housing crisis has led to incredibly high prices by any historical comparison. The average house price at the moment in Wales is £173,000. Have we lost the ability to be shocked by some of these data, which go to the fundamentals of life—the desire and need for a home? The average price now is £173,000. That is a remarkable multiple of average salary, at 6.4—6.4 times the average salary to get the average house in Wales. Something is very, very wrong about how we meet housing demand.

The housing crisis hits younger people particularly hard. There are currently 150,000 20 to 34-year-olds still living at home. Family homes are all too often out of reach of those who most need them, i.e. people in their 30s, when they are raising families. The tragedy here is that we could be doing something, and we could be doing something very economically productive in addition to meeting that basic housing demand.

Can I just finish, Deputy Presiding Officer, by saying I’m very disappointed that the Welsh Government has now the Executive power and has not chosen to match the ambition of the Welsh Conservative party as outlined in our manifesto when we said we would have brought forth a housing access Bill to help young people onto the housing ladder, promote a more lively housing market, and boost the construction industry? That is what Wales needs. Get to it.

Well, we’ve had a spirited debate this afternoon. I appreciate the way in which it was opened by Andrew Davies, and, although we’re in different parties, I think we have a lot in common. We’ve got one thing in common—we’re both against this useless administration that has dominated Wales for so long.

When the First Minister gave his statement on this last week I dismissed this document as a pot pourri of platitudes. Well, I think it’s 15 pages of fluff, isn’t it? That’s what we’ve got here. It’s what you might call a soufflé of sugary froth, but soufflés do not benefit by being warmed up, and this is the third time we’ve had a programme for five years in the fifteen or sixteen weeks that we’ve been here in the fifth Assembly. So, if we’re going to get a new programme of government for a Government of five years every five weeks, then we’re going to be producing a lot of paper and cutting down a lot of trees over the next few years.

If you look through this document, it is very long on words but very, very short on action. We’ve heard from speakers in the debate today of its limitations. I want to focus on agriculture, representing Mid and West Wales. All that the document says on agriculture, basically, is we’re going to

‘work with partners to secure a prosperous future for Welsh agriculture’.

Well, who isn’t going to do that? But that comes as little consolation to farmers—[Interruption.] Little consolation to farmers, who have no idea what the Government’s going to do about TB, no idea what the Government is going to do about the collapse in farm incomes. Yes.

I’m somewhat surprised that you get up and talk about what’s going to happen for farming when you, your party, actually wanted exit from the EU. You’ve got that. What I would like you to say is: what did you think was coming next? Because you never said it. You campaigned on a platform of hatred, and that is exactly what you did, and you had no idea of what was coming next.

Well, it’s a typical contribution from ‘Joy-less’ Watson, but—

Excuse me, can you refer—

I respond—

No, I’m sorry, can you refer to the Member as she is listed on the order paper, please? Her name is Joyce Watson.

I regret I gave way to Joyce Watson.

Thank you.

But I shall know better next time. The document says nothing about the solution to the TB problems, says nothing about the collapse of farm income, and says nothing about the overburdening of famers with regulation.

On the health service, again, they

‘remain committed to the founding principles of the NHS, healthcare free and accessible to all at the point of need.’

But that comes as a big surprise to the residents of Blaenau Ffestiniog, as I pointed out in questioning the First Minister yesterday, as they’ve had their hospital closed and they’ve got almost no GPs left. There’s no solution to the GP recruitment crisis in Wales in this document either.

On transport, all we’ve got is a warmed-up list of projects that have been ongoing for years. The M4 relief road—that’s eight years in the making and we still haven’t even got on the starting blocks for that as yet. But we are told that, by the year 2050, we’re going to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent, the consequences of which will be a massive addition to the cost burden of British industry and a massive increase in the electricity bills of ordinary householders throughout Wales, and the poorest members of the community will be the ones who will suffer most. And that’s what this Labour Government is committed to.

The whole document is predicated, to go back to Joyce Watson’s intervention, on the idea that we’re going to have a shrinking economy as a result of leaving the EU, but a Treasury forecast published today has been revised now in the other direction from ‘project doom’. So, what leaving the EU gives us is a massive opportunity to repatriate powers, not just to Westminster, but also to Cardiff, and to use them to improve the productive potential of the British economy and, therefore, to improve the prosperity of all classes and income levels in society. Because those powers are in the hands, at the moment, of people who are not elected and therefore not accountable to the people of this country, it gives us every opportunity to improve democracy in Britain as well.

It’s absurd to think that as a result of leaving the EU—even on what you might regard as the worst-case scenario of not being able to do any kind of deal with the EU at all—that’s going to lead to a shrinking economy, because only 5 per cent of our GDP is accounted for in exports to the EU, and 65 per cent of that 5 per cent would have a maximum tariff of 4 per cent if we did no deal with the EU. So, we’re only talking about, in the worst-case scenario, a possible diminution of part of 1.5 per cent of GDP—if you ignore all the dynamic effects of leaving the EU and our freedom to enter into trade deals with countries all around the world that are currently blocked or stymied as a result of the need for 28 countries to agree these deals before they can be put into place.

Are you coming to a conclusion?

I am coming to a conclusion. There are things in this document one can welcome. One million Welsh speakers by 2050—I hope I’m still here to see whether the Government is able to deliver on that deal, and I strongly support Alun Davies, one of my favourite Ministers, in this respect, and many other things as well. [Interruption.] But I’m going to bring my remarks to a close. The Government is often talking about the poverty that exists in Wales, but the worst example of poverty that exists in Wales is actually the poverty of ambition on the part of the Welsh Government, represented by the extinct volcanoes on the front bench here.

I call Jane Hutt to respond for the Government.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I’m very pleased to respond to this very lively debate this afternoon. Thank you for wishing the Government well, Andrew R.T. Davies, in delivering this programme for government. We have provided a very clear statement to the people of Wales about what this Government stands for—what this Government stands for and what our principles are and what actions we intend to take. We’ve highlighted the areas where we can have the biggest impact, with headline commitments to move us forward. I’m very happy, again, to remind the Assembly of these commitments.

We want a Wales that is prosperous and secure. So, we will deliver a tax cut for 70,000 businesses. We will create a Wales development bank. We will implement the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK, as Julie Morgan has said. And we will create a minimum of 100,000 high-quality all-age apprenticeships and deliver an extra 20,000 affordable homes.

That was warmly welcomed, I’m sure you know, David Melding, by Community Housing Cymru. But I do welcome also the fact that you recognise that this is an important policy area for this Welsh Government. I want to make a couple of points.

Thank you for giving way. How, in a five-year period, can you commit to building an additional 20,000 affordable homes and yet your annual target remains the same at 8,700? It stretches my ability in terms of logic. Now please explain.

Of course, in the last term of Government, we set out a target of 10,000 affordable homes. We achieved over 9,000 in the first four years—actually, the statistics for last year are being released in a couple of weeks’ time. I’m confident they’ll show we’ve exceeded the target. [Interruption.] No, I want to finish my point for David Melding. This is very important, because this is an ambitious target—to deliver 20,000 affordable homes—and you will hold us to account for that, I know. It includes social and intermediate housing, as well as helping to support people into home ownership through Help to Buy—Wales, so important for the young people who are also using Help to Buy.

Also, this Welsh Government, unlike the UK Government, where it no longer exists, is investing £68.1 million for new affordable homes via the social housing grant programme. You recognise that this is crucial in terms of providing accessible social housing. Also—and this is the important point—we are building. Local authorities are now, for the first time since the 1980s, building new homes as a result of our successful exit from the housing revenue account subsidy. Surely—I know David Melding will recognise that.

But let’s move on to those other commitments. We want a Wales that is healthy and active, so we will recruit and train more GPs, nurses and other health professionals. That was warmly welcomed when the Cabinet Secretary made his announcement about that, and it was warmly welcomed when, yesterday, he made his statement about the new treatment fund. This is about a Government that has listened, is working with you, and then making statements on how it is going to deliver this programme for government.

I’m very grateful to you for taking the intervention, Cabinet Secretary. You made previous commitments in your last programme for government in the previous Assembly to ensure that all over-50s had an annual health check and that everybody could have access to evening GP appointments and weekend GP appointments. You failed to deliver on those commitments. What guarantees can we have that you’re going to deliver on these commitments now?

Well, you certainly have welcomed the commitments that we have made, Darren Millar, in terms of the health service. But, also, I think and I recall that you welcomed the fact that we, the Welsh Labour Government, actually put money into social care, which, of course, in England is now being cut, resulting in people remaining in hospital because there is no funding for social care. The Welsh Labour Government put social care as a forefront ambition.

We also have to recognise that this is about how we’re ambitious with learning. We have invested an extra £100 million to drive up school standards, and introduced a new curriculum to give us the skills we need and promote teaching excellence. I’m delighted that Neil Hamilton welcomes the fact that we’re working towards 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. It sounds as though you might be leaving us, Neil Hamilton, though, from what you said, but let’s recognise that there are important points to make.

I would also like to respond to Mohammad Asghar’s points about the 100,000 quality apprenticeships for all ages. That’s what, last night, the Construction Industry Training Board—I was at the dinner, Russell George was at the dinner, Simon Thomas—welcoming the fact that we had announced 100,000 quality apprenticeships for all ages looking at the key areas: life sciences, financial services and digital technologies—welcoming the fact. In fact, James Wates, the chairman of the UK board, said, ‘When I come to Wales, I see innovation’. You know that—you heard it, those of you who were there last night. But they were also saying to us how worried they are about the apprenticeship levy. I don’t know how the leader of the opposition can think that this isn’t an issue—a UK Government issue imposed on us with no consultation, an unnecessary burden on employers, and CITB is very concerned about it. So, we’ve been very clear on this agenda and how we can take this forward in terms of our ambitions.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we do face great—[Interruption.] I’ve given way to your side quite a bit already. Dirprwy Lywydd, we do face uncertainties. We’re preparing for a draft budget amid ongoing public cuts, austerity and uncertainty, of course, since the UK’s vote to leave the EU—more uncertain times. We’re not going to pre-empt the content of our 2017-18 budget, and we have to recognise that it’s about aligning resources to our priorities. But I want to finally say that not only are we delivering on our commitments, but we know what Wales needs, we listen to what Wales needs—that they wanted us to support businesses, they wanted us to support our health service, our schools, our affordable housing programme, but they also wanted to recognise new needs, and Julie Morgan described those in terms of our childcare offer. Let’s just look at that childcare offer. It’s one of the key priorities of this Government. It delivers a better deal on childcare that anywhere else in the UK, building on the foundation phase, providing working families with 30 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds for 48 weeks of the year. This includes term-time and holiday provision. I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to say that and broadcast this in this debate today. This is the most ambitious priority for us as a Welsh Government. In Liverpool on Sunday, the First Minister quoted Nye Bevan, when he said,

‘only by the possession of power can you get the priorities correct.’

And, as the First Minister stated, we’ve set out our priorities, we’ve set out what we will do to achieve them, and we can do them constructively with your engagement through the compact with Plaid Cymru across this Chamber. But we are clear that the people of Wales voted for our programme, and we have a mandate to deliver it.

This has certainly been a curate’s egg of a debate, and I do think that the Welsh Conservatives have managed to snaffle all the good parts, because I do think that most of the other contributions were pretty thin, particularly the Welsh Government, who only managed to find one backbencher to defend their programme. Leader of the house, I understand that the May election result must have thrown you and your colleagues into a real tailspin. I also understand that you must have delayed over whether or not you had the collective courage to try and form a minority Government with the intellectual bravery to hammer out a consensus, Bill by Bill, policy by policy. And failing having that intellectual bravery, I also understand that you needed to see if you had the time and the space to absorb the Liberal Democrat one, and to reach some kind of woolly agreement with the nationalists.

I might even be persuaded that, after 17 lacklustre years, you needed the time to re-energise, and to come up with a positive plan for the next five years. What I don’t understand is how this can be this result—how your programme for government for the next four and a half or five years is reduced to a lightweight fly-poster, with zero ambition, a paucity of objectives, and above all, no metrics for outcome-based monitoring. Julie Morgan said it was a headline document. But the truth is that we—civic society, the public—we were all expecting a rather more detailed vision of your objectives. Instead we are treated to woolly phrases, such as, and I quote,

‘improve access to GPs surgeries, making it easier to get an appointment’.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us would have expected easier appointments to be an outcome for improved access. The real detail that is missing is how you will do it, and how you will be measured.

I’ve met with a great number of organisations in the last few weeks, and most express hopes that are dashed, and frustrations as a result of this document supposedly taking Wales forward. Andrew R.T. Davies and Russell George listed the many areas where this document is light, ranging from bovine TB, to cross-border issues, to waiting times, to the steel industry. Your programme of government is lightweight, and is conflicted, leader of the house. One simple example is that you wish to improve children’s health and activity, but you cut the funding for sports and physical activity by 7 per cent in the 2016-17 budget, and have reduced the amount of time that children can participate in PE.

Let me look at another area in your programme for government.

Will you take an intervention?

No, I won’t, thank you, Joyce.

The ultimate woolly aspiration—your promise to hold a wider conversation about local government reform. So, are you saying that, despite the months of effort, and tonnes of wordage produced by the Williams Commission, and the First Minister personally championing local government reform in the last Assembly, this new programme for government firmly places local government, their elected representatives, the officers and the thousands of people involved in delivering services throughout Wales in limbo land?

I’ve mentioned the lack of vision, I’ve mentioned the woolly aspirations, I’ve mentioned the conflicts in policy and I’ve mentioned the endless fudging. So, let me finally touch upon the great con. The Welsh Government plan to drive forward investment, innovation and the creation of new jobs by providing more support for businesses, including a tax cut—a tax cut that is really a promise to keep the current business rate scheme for a further year; a scheme which could ultimately result in the uniform business rate in Wales increasing by 10 per cent as a result of next year’s rvaluation.

In fact, David Melding touched upon another area—housing—where one statement appears to mean something entirely different. When I went to school, I have to say that the word ‘additional’ in the context you use it in your document meant ‘extra’. Obviously not here in Wales.

Leader of the house, you, your colleagues and your teams have had plenty of time to plan where you want to go. You’ve had 146 days. You’ve got thousands of civil servants plus the endless promises in your manifesto, not to mention, Gareth Bennett, the much-vaunted and into-oblivion delivery unit. And yet we have a document that you, First Minister, try to defend as a strategic road map, which doesn’t even mention the Brexit landslide that could block your way. I do find it astonishing that there’s no mention of how you intend to tackle this issue, one that has to be the most important facing us today. I cannot help but wonder if your programme for government document is shaped because in May 2021, we, the Welsh people, business leaders and civic society will be able to challenge and hold your performance to account—because it is almost impossible to evaluate that which you cannot read about, that which you cannot measure and that which is not being implemented.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Thank you. Therefore, we’ll defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

It has been agreed that voting time will take place before the short debate. Unless three Members wish for the bell to be rung, I will proceed directly now to voting time. Okay, thank you.