This is a useful short report to highlight some of the benefits, but also some of the hazards, potentially, ahead. I think it's fantastic that we've got 10 local authorities in the Cardiff capital region collaborating together, because obviously when we're trying to sort out our connectivity and other transport arrangements we need to make for our communities, we need to work together. It's ridiculous to have artificial boundaries. So, that's all very well and good, and I note the positive comments of Andrew Morgan, saying that, because the local authorities have worked well together, that has also encouraged the Welsh Government to work effectively with those 10 local authorities. So, that's all very good stuff.

I think some of my concerns relate to some of the things that the report mentions that are around governance and transparency, because I'd like to think that I pay quite a lot of attention to the Cardiff capital region, not least because, at the moment, most of the money is going to be going into the transport arrangements for the region, and that's something I have a particular interest in. But I note the concerns of the Bevan Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the lack of transparency, and that's a little bit what I experience myself. I really don't know how decisions are being made as to how this £734 million for stage 2 of the metro is being decided. Because if it's merely going to go into upgrading the existing railway lines, it's good news for the communities who already benefit from those railway lines, but not at all good news for those communities that don't have any of the benefit of the railway lines that were closed long ago under Beeching. There's a lack of clarity in my mind about how we're really going to have a comprehensive approach to ensuring that all our communities are connected so that we don't have communities left behind. That's one of the other things that was flagged up by the Bevan Foundation and Joseph Rowntree—you'll have a tunnel effect of pulling in resources into particular areas that will suck out resources from other areas. Those are things we absolutely have to guard against.

There are massive concerns around the unknowns. It obviously will be of benefit for Wales to have control of its own transport destiny, because it's interesting to remember that, in the high-level output specification that is determined by the Secretary of State for Transport in Westminster, one of the two objectives was to electrify the line between London and Swansea, and we all know what happened there. So, at what point do they suddenly change the goalposts in relation to Transport for Wales and the electrification of the Valleys lines? I think there are risks in all of this, and also there are other risks that we've also seen played out elsewhere in the UK, around the north-east of England franchise that was bid on by Virgin and Stagecoach and then shortly into the contract they've decided to hand it back. Obviously, there are huge financial risks if our preferred bidder for the all-Wales franchise gets it wrong.

I welcome the report because it highlights some of the things that we really need to focus on. I think it's particularly important that the auditor general highlights the importance of tracking the performance of the metro phase 2 project so that we are able to see where the slippage is and where things are going wrong and where things are not being delivered. We've already seen some worrying ballooning of the M4 relief road estimates and we clearly need to ensure that we are clear about what we're setting out to do with this £734 million and what are the milestones that we're supposed to be achieving with that money. But, for myself, I don't feel I've been consulted or that my constituents have been consulted on the shape of the metro at all at this stage.