8. 7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Economic Development

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:25 pm on 8 February 2017.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 5:25, 8 February 2017

You were clearly very kind to me in my short debate on the city region last week when you didn’t raise any of these concerns. I’ve listened to what you’ve just said now and what you said in your contribution earlier, Adam. And you clearly have major issues—. Well, you’re thinking outside of the box in terms of the city region. I think everyone else at the moment is saying, ‘Aren’t the city regions, the city deals across Wales the best thing since sliced bread?’ They are not perfect; you are right to say that there are other parts of Wales that we need to think about as well. But I would say, going back to your earlier comments, that, where you have a vacuum, you need to fill it with something, and I think at least those city deals are going to bring in considerable investment; we’re looking at £1.2 billion from the UK Government and the Welsh Government supporting that city deal in south-east Wales. So, I think for us to simply say that that doesn’t address the needs of the Welsh economy and the south Wales economy would be wrong. I think that you have to recognise that they are important. That’s not to say that we don’t support developing the Heads of the Valleys corridor, and that we don’t believe in my area, in Monmouthshire, in making sure that the rural economy there is able to stand on its own two feet as well. Of course we want that, but at the same time, we also have to recognise that, in this part of the world, and for me and my neighbouring Assembly Members and Mohammad Asghar in south-east Wales, the south-east Wales economy is going to be bolstered by the Cardiff city deal, and it will be wrong, I think, to isolate areas like mine from that. So, I hear what you said.

It was nice to hear you mention the spatial plan earlier, by the way. As Andrew R.T. Davies said, it’s been a long time since his namesake mentioned that in this Chamber. There are a lot of good things in that spatial plan, as you pointed out, and we do need to make sure that those are incorporated into a strategy. But first and foremost, in conclusion, because I can see that the Presiding Officer is wanting me to wind up—first and foremost, let’s get on with the job of developing a fully-fledged Welsh manufacturing strategy, an industrial strategy that fits in with the UK strategy, but at the same time, does its own thing—models on providing Welsh solutions to Welsh problems.