Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 22 November 2017.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 1:49, 22 November 2017

Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, after many years of trying to retrieve this information from you, you have now finally provided the breakdown of the numbers of jobs created, safeguarded and supported by Wales's eight enterprise zones, and I thank you for those figures. The enterprise zones made clear that just—I've got the figures here—2,998 new jobs have been created since the zones were first set up. That's despite £221 million of public funds having been allocated to the zones over the past five-year period. This means that the average cost of creating one new job in the enterprise zones has been just over £73,000. That's the equivalent of a business employing a full-time worker for just under three and a half years. Do you believe that spending over £73,000 to create a single job represents good value for the Welsh taxpayer?