1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on funding plans under the Vibrant and Viable Places programme for 2017/18? OAQ(5)0104(CC)[W]

I thank the Member for Arfon for her question. The Vibrant and Viable Places programme has been successful in providing support and investment in many communities across Wales. A future capital regeneration programme is under consideration and I’ll be providing further information to Members shortly.

Thank you. Can you confirm whether the current programme is to come to an end at the end of March, and what will happen following that? Will the programme continue as it is, or will it become part of something larger? What will the guidance be, and what is the timetable for that? Local authorities are eager to have the details as soon as possible so that they can plan for the future. Indeed, there is uncertainty and a lack of clarity more generally in the regeneration field. Do you agree that the vision is not clear at the moment, and if the intention is to reduce poverty then will the programme set clear outcomes in order to assist in making the difference that both of us are working towards?

I’m grateful for the Member’s question. She will be aware of the great work that’s gone on in her constituency, in Gwynedd, in terms of Vibrant and Viable Places actions taking place there. The Member is right to say that we haven’t yet formulated a future programme from VVP. The intention is for it to come to an end, and I will make a further decision on that. I think what was hampering the issue was about the amount of regeneration capital funding that was available to me. I’m grateful to the finance Minister and discussions with him on the ability to enhance that profile. From those discussions with him I am able to start looking at a future programme, which may be a VVP 2, or indeed another version of that.

Cabinet Secretary, I hope you would agree with me that Newport has seen beneficial use of Vibrant and Viable Places for city-centre regeneration, creating accommodation and alternative use to retail effectively. Whatever the future holds in terms of Vibrant and Viable Places or a similar scheme, will you continue to work closely with Newport City Council to take forward this important and beneficial regeneration programme?

Indeed, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to visit Newport with both yourself and the Member Jane Bryant to see the fantastic effects that VVP has had in your communities and neighbouring areas. It is something that I’m taking very seriously about how we continue with work to develop communities in the way we have in the past. I’m looking forward to announcing new schemes in the future. I will keep the Member abreast of that proposal.

Last week you mentioned that some Vibrant and Viable Places projects were going to be getting more money because of underspends in other areas, which strikes me as slightly odd, that some local authorities seem be quite bad at following guidelines if some are underspending and others haven’t got enough money. Because we’re not talking just about replacing falling-down car parks here; we’re talking about something that interests me very much: lifelong living and the housing supply that would meet that. So, are you planning to use any of this underspend to target specific projects, and particularly the kind of housing that can brought into city centres, which isn’t just affordable housing and then nothing else, but something that has a lifelong throughput to it?

Of course, the Member raises an important issue about how distribution of finance is given. It’s fair to say that the VVP policy is complicated by other actions such as planning and access to land, et cetera, so that complicates, sometimes, some of the schemes that are thought to be a little easier than others. I am looking at authorities that bring to me alternative schemes that are able to be flexible, but certainly the schemes that the Member talked about, about the introduction of long-term opportunities in housing, not just affordable, but the transformation of their communities, is something I’m very keen to pursue.