The Valleys Taskforce

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 28 February 2018.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 2:10, 28 February 2018

I'm grateful to my friend from Caerphilly for that taxing question. Can I say that the Valleys taskforce exists in order to shape the policies and approach of the Welsh Government? It doesn't exist as an independent entity away from Government, and, as such, it seeks to work closely with both the city deals in south Wales, in both the capital region and in Swansea, and it seeks to ensure that we reduce complexity. One of the challenges that I think we have to face is to ensure greater coherence in policy development and policy delivery, whilst ensuring that we reduce complexity and increase simplicity in how we work together. At the moment, I am confident that we do have the structures in place that ensure that we are able to work effectively together and to maximise the impact of each other without falling into a trap of duplicating each other's ambitions, visions and policies. But I do believe that we do need to ensure that we do have greater simplicity in the future.