5. How is the Welsh Government utilising the assets in our localities to tackle inequality? OAQ(5)0165(CC)

Our regeneration and infrastructure projects focus on tackling inequality. The community facilities programme, for example, provides capital grants for community-led projects.

Thank you. Well, building on the theme of the last few questions, the routes out of poverty you identify I completely share, but unless you get to the root causes of the problems that people face, often the routes out of poverty won’t be accessed. Last week, your colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government told the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee that the job of local authorities is to identify and capture the strengths and assets of people in that area. We’ve heard of co-production principles, but they’re about things that you say you support—equality, mutuality, working alongside the people, doing things with them rather than to them and for them so that they move from being passive recipients to active participants. What meetings or discussions have you therefore had—now 13 months after its launch—with the co-production network for Wales so that you can engage, share and learn together on the methodologies, which are working in communities in Wales, UK and across the world, and have been doing for decades, and can significantly help deliver the solutions that we all seek?

Well, I think the Member has several groups of individuals that he represents well, on the basis that they must come and see him on a weekly basis. But what I can say is that we introduced legislation here, which was the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, which embeds the principles of working together on exactly the issues that the Member raises today about co-production and opportunity. All of the well-being assessments are being created across the public bodies, and I would expect all of those to have respect for organisations that work across the length and breadth of Wales to deliver a better outcome for those communities.