8. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on funding plans under the Community Facilities Programme for 2017/18? OAQ(5)0109(CC)[W]

I recently announced an additional £4 million for the community facilities programme in each of the next four financial years. This brings the total available for projects in 2017-18 to £6 million. Priority will be given to applications seeking to improve the sustainability of facilities serving Communities First communities.

Next week, it will be 11 months since Canolfan y Fron submitted an application for a grant from this programme. Delays within the Government are putting the whole project at risk. It’s also almost nine months since GISDA—a vulnerable young people’s charity—sent in their application, and they are still waiting to hear whether they have been successful in their bid. The Government had pledged that they would have received a response by October. I’ve written to you a number of times over the last few months on this issue, and in your response to one of my letters, four months ago, it was mentioned that a decision was about to be reached. But there has been still no response. Both of these organisations make a considerable difference to the lives of many people in my constituency, but they are being held back significantly because of a lack of information from the Government. Will the Cabinet Secretary inform us today the exact date that GISDA and Canolfan y Fron will learn whether their applications have been successful?

If the Member wishes to keep pushing me on a response, rather than me giving her a measured response to this process—. Will they be getting any funding today? No, they won’t. If that’s the response the Member wants, I can give her that today. Actually, the Member would be much better off waiting for me to make a collective decision on how we’re going to allocate this funding, and we will do that shortly.

Well, I’m pleased to hear of the additional investment, at least. The community facilities programme guidance says that local authorities, health boards and other public bodies, as well as businesses, can be partners to local organisations who want to make a bid to the fund. But, it appears to me that most of the projects are administered through the local authorities. It’s difficult to see how easy it is for local organisations to work with private businesses and use the wealth of skills and information that they have. Would it be possible for you to tell us how many programme projects work with local authorities as compared to those working with local businesses? What kind of encouragement do these businesses have to actually collaborate on this?

That’s a really interesting question that the Member raises. I don’t have the detail on me today, but I will write to the Member with notice of that. I’m really keen for as much involvement and third-party activity around these programmes as possible. Rather than single access points, I think, actually, we gain much more from the private sector and public sector working together with volunteers to create a community facility. I will give that some further thought, but, as I said in my response initially, my concentration of this fund now will be in Communities First areas in terms of transition.