Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:33 pm on 20 June 2018.
Obviously, the Barclays call centre is on the edge of my constituency, just a few hundred yards from the top of my constituency, so many of them live in my constituency. Having listened very carefully to the trade union representatives, many of whom are personally affected by this move, this morning, I'm concerned at the apparent thinness of the business case for doing this. They've made no case for reducing the number of jobs based on technological advances. It seems to be all down to an investing campus site, whatever that might mean, invented by people who are not familiar with the geography of the UK, and perhaps haven't had pointed out to them that Northampton is not close to Cardiff, and is certainly not going to be used as a way of people commuting slightly further.
So, I'd be very keen if you, Cabinet Secretary, could ask the Barclays senior management, based in the United States, what is the substance of this location strategy, given that there's no reduction in the number of employees, that it's reported that there's great difficulty in getting appropriately qualified people in Northampton, and that the Cardiff site currently serves some of their highest value customers—high-end businesses who require the highest quality service otherwise they'll obviously take their business elsewhere. So, I'm very concerned, not just about the impact on the 200 individuals affected by this in Cardiff, but that there's a lack of any strategic substance to the business case for this level of disruption.