Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 29 November 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 1:51, 29 November 2017

You're quite right, we do have a budget agreement, and I'm very pleased with some of the things that we've got from that. Some of the things you mentioned, Cabinet Secretary, however, are important, but, on the whole, they're capital. You could be using the ability of the new much-talked-about but strange capital that's come to the Welsh Government, this transactional sort of capital, to look at how that could go into warm homes, for example. So, that still leaves you, I think, bidding for this £100 million, and I look forward to seeing the impact of your lobbying on the finance Cabinet Secretary in the final budget.

But, of course, though you have been successful in paying the basic farm payments, and you announced that in the winter show this week, there are wider questions about ongoing funding as we leave the European Union. It seems increasingly clear to me that, in fact, we cannot bank the promises that have been made about ongoing common agricultural policy and farm payments beyond 2020. There's been much talk about 2022, but, in fact, when you look at the guarantees, they are rock solid, perhaps, until 2020, but, after that, they look rather shaky to my mind. So, can I ask her whether she agrees with that analysis from the Westminster perspective and whether she is now in a position to give an unequivocal guarantee, in this Assembly, that at least for this Assembly term—this Assembly term—this Welsh Government will continue the current envelope of farm payments?