Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:41 pm on 24 January 2018.
First of all, I've been very clear in conveying the national well-being indicators as a consistent approach for us to adopt across Government. But I've said on numerous occasions as well that setting targets can lead to perverse incentives, and can consequently lead to uneven economic growth. Setting targets for employment, for example, where you don't recognise the inequalities across regions, can lead us to create jobs where there is already a very high level of employment. Instead, what we are doing is addressing regional inequality by applying a new regional approach and by applying an economic contract that seeks to drive up their work—that seeks to drive up the security of work. These are issues that I think have stemmed from wide-ranging engagement with the business community, but also with people in the trade union movement who represent tens of thousands of people who wish to see improvements in standards of employment.
I'm going to address some of the specific points that Members raised, beginning first of all with the question of cross-border working. The leader of the Conservatives said that we do not mention this once. In fact, it's mentioned twice on page 23 alone. Why do I point to page 23? That's because we also talk about a certain Swansea bay tidal lagoon on that page, which is something that the UK Government remain silent on. On that page, we state:
'In the North and in Mid and South West Wales we will be able to use the new approach to strengthen and evolve important arrangements for cross border economic development and transport planning.'
Now, Darren Millar, in his contribution, rightly pointed out that cross-border collaboration is vital in terms of transport and planning and economic development, and for our part, in north Wales and along the border, we've already announced that we are committing to relieving congestion on the A494. We're investing heavily in the A55. We're going to relieve the pinch point that is the Halton roundabout on the A5. We're also going to be investing heavily in Shotton and Wrexham railway stations. We would wish to see the UK Government meet our investments by investing in infrastructure on the English side of the border at Chester, on the M56 at Helsby, and, crucially, on the A5 in the Shrewsbury area. These are huge problems that must be addressed.
Llywydd, as I reach the end of my contribution, Members will no doubt be aware of the UK industrial strategy, and I would wish to say that the UK Government needs to back up the warm words about redistribution in that strategy with investment across the whole of the UK, including here in Wales.