2. What consideration has the Cabinet Secretary given to the establishment of a mid-Wales growth deal? (OAQ51067)

I thank Russell George for that question. The possibility of a growth deal for mid Wales has been discussed in a number of meetings that I have attended with the leaders of Ceredigion and Powys county councils, both before and after this year’s local authority elections. Informal, official-level discussions have also taken place. Local bodies continue to take the lead in developing any growth deal proposition.

Thank you for your answer, Cabinet Secretary. As we know, economic development is the backbone to rural economies’ survival. I was pleased that the First Minister confirmed last week, in his statement on the national strategy, that the Welsh Government will be looking at creating a mid Wales growth deal to support the economy of the region. So, on that basis, can I ask what initial finance you have considered putting in place to support early work that will be required to make a mid Wales growth deal a reality?

To date, Chair, the funding that has been needed to develop the idea has been contributed by those who have been members of the partnership that has been set up: members drawn from the private sector, from manufacturing, agriculture and tourism, together with higher and further education, the voluntary sector and local government. Where the Welsh Government and, indeed, the UK Government will come into the picture, should a growth deal be developed, is when we get to the point of having specific ideas identified, a core set of purposes, an agreed set of priorities, and then, we are committed to discussing purposefully with the UK Government and with local players the financial contribution that the Welsh Government may be able to make to such a deal.

May I first of all welcome the fact that the Cabinet Secretary is here today, rather than listening to his leader in Brighton? I’m sure he would prefer to be at the seaside there, but we are very pleased to have him here. May I ask specifically about this concept of some sort of growth deal for mid Wales? We must think in terms of the whole of west Wales, in my view, because we have what’s happening in south Wales, we know about the city regions, and there is something specific in that regard from the Government here and the Government in Westminster. In north Wales, there is this concept of the pan-north Wales, and there are links over the border to England and different agreements with cities there. But there is a void in the middle, and what I’m seeking here from the Cabinet Secretary today is some sort of idea of where this Government stands on that. Do you believe that we should fill that void, or vacuum, with some sort of growth deal for those areas? I know that it has to be grown from the bottom up, but are you eager to see that happening?

Rydym ni yn awyddus, Dirprwy Lywydd, wrth gwrs, ac rydym ni’n awyddus i gefnogi pobl leol sy’n gweithio ar bosibiliadau am y dyfodol. Nid wyf i’n dechrau o rywle ble rwy’n meddwl bod rhaid i bob lle yng Nghymru gael rhyw fath o fargen, ond, ble mae diddordeb gyda phobl leol, a ble maen nhw’n ymwybodol, fel roedd Simon Thomas yn ei ddweud, am sut maen nhw’n mynd i weithio dros y ffin gyda phobl eraill mewn sefyllfa arall, yn Lloegr, neu yng Nghymru, rydym ni’n awyddus fel Llywodraeth i’w cefnogi nhw, i weithio gyda nhw, a gweld os maen nhw’n gallu creu syniadau sy’n mynd i weithio i bobl leol, ble rŷm ni a Llywodraeth y Deyrnas Unedig yn gallu helpu i’w hariannu nhw ar gyfer yr uchelgais y maen nhw’n eu greu yno.

Is the Cabinet Secretary aware that, on Friday, I spoke at a meeting of the rural division of the Welsh Local Government Association, where I encouraged the councils that were present there—Ceredigion, Powys, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey—to work together to develop a broader, place-based rural deal, which they agreed to do? I wondered, in terms of the possibility that the new economic structure to deliver economic development that is supposed to be based on the footprints of city deals, whether the Cabinet Secretary would speak to his economy Secretary to consider the opportunity, further on down the line, if a rural deal is developed, that that new structure may be considered as a new grouping in that new economic structure.

I thank Eluned Morgan for that. I was indeed aware of the fact that she was speaking with the WLGA and at the group of rural councils on Friday of last week, and no doubt following up in that discussion the report that she herself put together earlier in the year.

I think the point that I would make is a point that Simon Thomas started with: that we will need some flexibility to allow arrangements that lie under the umbrella of the wider regional arrangements that we are setting up to be able to take root and prosper where those ideas are good ones. In this Chamber, quite often, Sian Gwenllian has raised the need for a regional arrangement that links the whole of the western side of Wales, building on the report that Rhodri Glyn Thomas produced for the Welsh Government about a year or so ago. So there’s another example of where, within the umbrellas of regional arrangements that the Welsh Government is pursuing, we will need some flexibility to allow arrangements that sometimes cut across those boundaries and sometimes operate within them. We’ll need the necessary flexibility to allow those ideas to be pursued and, where possible, to be brought to fruition.