Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 15 February 2017.
I thank Hefin David for the question. I agree with him completely that there is a great deal to learn from work that goes on elsewhere. I was pleased myself to accept an invitation from Professor Karel Williams to give a lecture at the Manchester Business School recently, sharing the experience from Wales to match the experience that they are able to offer us. One of the ways in which I believe the Cardiff capital city deal will meet the question that the Member poses is that, along with our White Paper on local government reform, we propose to create a new statutory duty on such regional bodies to focus on best outcomes for the whole of the region. And that will mean taking a view of responsibilities that are not simply aligned with the particular part of that geography that any individual comes from, but to be focused on what matters for the region as a whole. I will certainly cover the parts of the Cardiff capital city deal that he has highlighted in his question, as he did in the short debate that Nick Ramsay brought to the floor of the Assembly on 1 February, when Hefin David focused on the Caerphilly business park and models there that can be used across the region as a whole.