Can I begin by thanking Paul Davies for bringing forward this short debate today, and also thank Eluned Morgan for contributing? UK City of Culture status, inspired by Liverpool’s time as European Capital of Culture in 2008, is more than just a title—it really is something that has the potential to generate significant social and economic benefits for St David’s and the surrounding area. It’s got the potential to attract more visitors, increase media interest in the city and bring community members together in increasing levels of professional and artistic collaboration, as well as, of course, grass-roots activities.

St David’s is a unique and absolutely beautiful city—the smallest city in Britain, with a population of just over 1,600 people. As Paul Davies has outlined, the main feature of St David’s is the cathedral. Since the sixth century, there’s been a church on the site, and, for the last 1,500 years, it’s welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors and pilgrims who come to the cathedral and shrine of St David, or Dewi Sant, every single year. The city is surrounded by some of the finest coastline in Europe, again, as Paul Davies identified, set in the UK’s only coastal national park—the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. I do think it will benefit considerably from the Year of Legends in 2017, but I also think that the Year of the Sea in 2018 presents many opportunities for St David’s to prosper.

It’s a very exciting opportunity and I applaud the fact that Pembrokeshire council has now registered an interest for St David’s to become the 2021 UK City of Culture. It shows the council’s resolve as well, not just to make St David’s an even more successful culture and tourism destination, but also to help regenerate the surrounding area. It would, indeed, be a magnificent coup if they can secure it. We’re already in close contact with Pembrokeshire council over its bid and will remain in close contact as the authority develops its detailed proposals. I will indeed be meeting with the authority once it’s developed its proposals more fully, and certainly before the 28 April deadline for initial bids. But in the meantime, my officials are assisting St David’s to identify all potential options for funding and for supporting the bid.

We are, of course, offering similar support to Swansea, which has also submitted an expression of interest. But as the title of today’s debate states, St David’s is a small city with a big, unique opportunity. Indeed, the bid’s own team’s stated vision is to bring the world to St David’s and St David’s to the world through an awe-inspiring programme of physical and digital cultural activity. I would love to see St David’s secure city of culture status. I saw how it improved pride in Liverpool and captured the imagination of its entire population, and even to this day, we see superlambananas, not just in Liverpool, but in north Wales, showcasing what city of culture status can offer and can achieve.

I do believe that St David’s is a tiny city, but has a huge heart, and city of culture status could do even more for boosting the economic prosperity of the city and the region, as well as give the city global attention. We will continue to support both St David’s and Swansea in whatever ways we are able to, in the hope that the UK city of culture status will come to Wales in 2021. And if it does, perhaps we should continue our thematic year approach for tourism by declaring 2021 the year of culture.