Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 29 November 2017.
When I go back to my office after this question session, I will be meeting with officials ahead of writing to the finance Minister. I think I was the first to put a bid in, so you'll be pleased to hear that. I have confirmed that my department has had the biggest cut, because it has—it's a fact. So, I'm not going to try and hide behind that, but I think we have managed to balance things so that, as I said, no one part of the portfolio has had a bigger hit. We've tried to share the pain across, if you like. I didn't come into politics to make cuts—nobody did—but we are faced with the reality.
So, as you say, there's this £100 million now. What will I be looking to reinstate? Well, again, one of my priority areas, probably shared by many Members, is around warm homes. We need to be looking at what we are doing in retrofitting our housing stock, particularly to be able to meet the low-carbon budgets that, obviously, we'll be setting. So, that's one area I'm looking at. Flooding, obviously—we had some horrendous flooding last week. When I was up in Llangefni on Thursday, Llangefni suffered incredibly, and the Member for Ynys Môn has already written to me regarding the flooding in Menai Bridge—I think that's where specifically you raised. So, I will be looking, certainly, at flooding, also. But if Plaid Cymru want to come forward with any views, I'll be very happy to do that—obviously, you supported our budget.