2. What steps are being taken to improve the economy in the former industrial areas of Wales? OAQ51332

We are taking a wide range of steps to support business, to equip people with the right skills they need for employment and to invest in quality infrastructure.

Further detail has emerged this week on your Government's attempts to transform the former industrial areas of the south of Wales, and I think most people would agree that the neglect of the former industrial areas right across this country has been a blight on both Governments in Westminster and various Labour Governments here. While I know the specific Valleys taskforce project is not under your direct jurisdiction, the economic fortunes of the whole of Wales should be a primary concern of yours. Many people in my constituency have been left wondering yet again if this Welsh Government has a defective map, without the Rhondda on it. I know that we're not the only area to be have been failed and neglected, so can you provide clarity as to what plans you have, in your capacity as Cabinet Secretary for the economy, to deliver long-lasting economic changes to the places that need it most, beyond bigger park and rides and faster trains to Cardiff?

Presiding Officer, I could make a cheap party political comment in response to the Member's question, given that a Plaid Cymru member did hold the economy and transport portfolio for many years, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to say that there is an absolute determination to invest right across the length and breadth of Wales. And the Member is right to point to the aspirations and the targets contained within the Valleys taskforce work, which will aim to create jobs for 7,000 people who are currently deprived of the opportunity to secure quality, well-paid work. But the Member's not right to suggest that her part of Wales has been deprived of opportunity and investment. In recent times, more than 1,000 jobs have been created as a consequence of Welsh Government support in the former industrial areas of the Valleys. I can list a number of companies that we have been able to support directly. For the Rhondda valley, I can include SPC, for example. Wider, where there would be opportunity for people from the Rhondda to get employment, there were jobs created at Code Serve Ltd, at Monitize, at Tenneco-Walker. Jobs are being created at TVR, General Dynamics UK.

Of course, there is more to do, and that's why we are implementing the action plan that stems from the work of the Valleys taskforce. That's why we've reconfigured my department to ensure that we place a place-based approached at the heart of economic development. I'm able to tell the Member today that we've appointed a new regional deputy director for the region to make sure that we share the wealth more fairly across Wales. With 'Prosperity for All', we have two objectives for this Government: a cross-government approach that will seek to raise levels of wealth and well-being in the aggregate, but also to reduce inequality in both.  

Cabinet Secretary, last month the Welsh Government announced plans for a regeneration-led targeted investment programme worth some £100 million. I wonder what economic impact you expect this targeted programme to have in the former industrial areas of Wales, like the Glamorgan valleys.

Well, I do think that targeted regeneration investment has an absolutely crucial part to play in widening prosperity and building resilient communities right across the length and breadth of Wales, and I was pleased that my colleague announced recently a new three-year programme of targeted regeneration investment, amounting to, as the Member says, £100 million. This money will ensure that we see the sort of infrastructure required to support economic growth and business start-ups, and it will ensure that we get a higher quality of place. We know that place building is vitally important in developing resilient and sustainable economic growth. This £100 million will deliver that. 

Cabinet Secretary, despite 18 years of your Government's economic policies, the former industrial areas of Wales, particularly those in my region, continue to be among the poorest in Europe—shocking when you consider the expanded EU contains former Soviet satellite states. EU structural funding hasn't worked. The policies haven't work. We have an opportunity post Brexit to implement structural funding programmes that work for Wales. Cabinet Secretary, what discussions have you had with the UK Government about structural funding programmes for when we finally leave the EU? Diolch.

This is a very important question. It's something that was taken up by Government Ministers across departments. But I must just say that the Member, in identifying a record for this Labour Government spanning 18 years, should reflect on the fact that a record is the record: low unemployment that we now have in Wales—lower on average than the UK—and a record level of employment with a lower rate of economic inactivity. Again, I would say that there is more to be done, but recently we've seen GVA rise faster than the UK average. We are on the runway. My aim now is to make sure that we take off with a new approach to economic development, placing the focus on regions and empowering regions, identifying key strengths across each of the regions and making sure that there is a new contract between business and Government that ensures that we generate prosperity for all.

I would say, as well, that in terms of some of the other industrial areas—I'm conscious that the questions so far have been confined to south Wales—I think it's important to say that there are other post-industrial areas of Wales that are benefiting from Welsh Government investment and support. Just last week, in addition to the 100 new jobs that are being created at Ipsen in Wrexham, not far from there at the former Sharp site—a huge site—we are helping to create at least 250 new jobs with the headquartering of a major global firm.

Cabinet Secretary, I fully appreciate that the former industrial areas in south Wales have been devastated in years gone past, but many of them—in fact, many former mining communities—are actually now turning to tourism as an agenda, to look at the economy of tourism, but they're struggling with support for that tourism business.

The Rhondda valley and the Afan valley have linked up on the Rhondda tunnel and I know you've supported that project, but there are difficulties in individuals and organisations getting that support. What can you do to help that, particularly as councils are facing difficulties because they are cash-strapped?

I think the Member raises a really important point, namely that tourism plays a critical role not just in rural areas and not just in our cities and in advanced economies, but also in areas of Wales that have suffered from industrial decline. I know that my excellent new colleague, the Minister responsible for tourism, will have a keen focus, just as I did, on making sure that we provide opportunities for growth in the visitor economy across all communities.

As to some industrial areas, we've been particularly successful here in south-east Wales in recent times in promoting the area through a relentless focus on adventure tourism and outdoor activities as an adventure destination across Europe, and investment in particular in the mountain-biking sector has proven to be incredibly successful and has reaped rewards.

However, alongside that, there are other initiatives such as the regional engagement fund. There's also the product innovation fund, which is designed to reward those entrepreneurs who come forward with creative ideas that will attract more visitors to Wales. I would point to an excellent example of a post-industrial area, where that's proving incredibly successful—that fund—and that would be Blaenau Ffestiniog, where we have one of the world's greatest zip-wire facilities that has regenerated that entire community. I'm keen, as a Government and as a department, that we go on supporting industrial communities in the way that we've supported industrial communities such as Blaenau Ffestiniog and other areas of the north-west and also parts of the south-east Wales Valleys.