The next item, therefore, is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services: 'Our Valleys, Our Future' progress report. I call on the Cabinet Secretary to make the statement. Alun Davies.

Presiding Officer, I am grateful to you for the opportunity to update Members about the progress that the Valleys taskforce has made since the 'Our Valleys, Our Future' action plan was published last July. I would like to start by placing on record my own personal thanks for the taskforce members’ work and support over the last 12 months, including my colleagues, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure, the Leader of the House and Chief Whip, the Minister for Housing and Regeneration, and the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning.

The Valleys taskforce was set up to create lasting change in the south Wales Valleys: an area that has immense opportunities, but also more than its fair share of challenges. I’m pleased to report today that the taskforce has planted the seeds of that change. At the heart of both the action plan and the delivery plan that accompanies it and which we published last November, there are three key priorities: good-quality jobs and the skills to do them, better public services, and my local community. There are more than 60 individual actions across each of the priorities, which have been developed following extensive engagement with people living and working in the south Wales Valleys. We believe that these actions will deliver real and lasting change for Valleys communities.

The taskforce is today publishing a first-year progress report, detailing the breadth of the work over the last 12 months and, Presiding Officer, I would like, with your consent, to share some of that progress with you today. A year ago, the taskforce set the challenging target of closing the employment gap between the south Wales Valleys and the rest of Wales. This means helping an extra 7,000 people into fair work and creating thousands of new, fair, secure and sustainable jobs in the Valleys. Over the last 12 months, more than 1,000 economically inactive people living in Valleys taskforce areas have started work through Welsh Government-led employment programmes. Nearly 1,000 people and small businesses have been helped through advice and business support. And more than 100 new enterprises have been created within the Valleys taskforce area.

The seven strategic hubs were originally conceived as areas where public money and resources would be focused to create opportunities for the private sector to invest and create new jobs. Over the last 12 months, we have made good progress in the development of these hubs. Local authorities in each of the hub areas have led the development of the plans, which are unique to their local area. Each area has been developing a blueprint for future investment, and we are identifying key projects to support long-term transformation. The early work on the hubs is highlighting the benefit that a joined-up approach to this type of investment can bring. We have seen this already with the Taff Vale project, which will provide the new headquarters for Transport for Wales, and help to revitalise Pontypridd’s high street. The Tech Valleys strategic plan has been published, providing strategic direction for investments and programme activity for Ebbw Vale, alongside a £25 million commitment between 2018 and 2021.

Presiding Officer, we are all aware in this Chamber of the metro and the welcome announcement made by my Cabinet colleague Ken Skates about the new rail franchise and the plans for a world-leading rail testing complex for the top of the Dulais valley. The metro is now becoming a reality, but as we have made clear all along, we need to ensure that it delivers far more than transport benefits alone. That will require the active support of a range of organisations, and we are already working across the region to deliver for Valleys communities.

Last week, the First Minister announced that he has appointed Linda Dickens, emeritus professor of industrial relations at the University of Warwick, as chair of our fair work commission. On behalf of the taskforce, I would also like to extend my own thanks to Professor Dickens for agreeing to support us on this journey. The Welsh Government has an ambition for Wales to be a fair work nation, and this work is extremely important to what we're trying to achieve in the Valleys. From the outset, the Valleys taskforce has highlighted the importance of engagement with Valleys communities. That has continued to be a vital element of our work over the course of the last 12 months.

Alongside our traditional methods of engagement, the taskforce has been working closely with three communities—in Llanhilleth, Ferndale, and in Glynneath and Banwen. We have been looking at how we can improve local services and make them better integrated. Each of these pathfinders have agreed a number of actions or activities, and the learning from this work will feed into the wider taskforce approach.

Presiding Officer, the taskforce will be taking forward three digital pilot schemes for the Valleys. We will explore extending public sector broadband networks to create a series of free Wi-Fi hotspots open to all across Valleys communities. We're investigating the creation of an Uber-style app, which would bring together all providers of community transport, making it easier for people to order transport to health appointments. We want to increase the use of online data mapping technologies as a means of promoting the Valleys. This work is closely aligned to the priorities identified by the Cardiff capital city region. It is also another area where the taskforce is acting as a catalyst for wider change. We all recognise the importance of digital technologies in the creation of high-quality jobs.

The Valleys landscape park is key to a third of the priorities in 'Our Valleys, Our Future'. It is at the heart of our ambition to help Valleys communities celebrate and make the most of our natural resources and heritage. We want communities in the Valleys to feel that they are a place that we can be proud to call 'home' and where businesses choose to operate. We want communities to be empowered and to show pride in their environment that is easily accessible and widely used.

The taskforce has spent much of the last year working on developing this exciting and dynamic approach that will co-ordinate, drive and promote activities related to environment and tourism across the south Wales Valleys. We all know just how much the Valleys have to offer, but I want the rest of Wales, the UK and the world to learn more about our history, our culture and our breathtaking scenery.

We have developed the idea for the Valleys landscape park with local communities, with key stakeholders and different interest groups. The aim is for it to deliver ambitious plans that will connect what we are calling 'discovery locations' across the Valleys with walking trails and cycle routes. It is my intention that this will be developed within a defined boundary and supported by a designated land status for the Valleys. We want the Valleys to be a recognised tourist destination. We want to grow the tourism economy in the Valleys to benefit from the economic impact that we know it can have. We are currently working with a number of proposed high-quality tourism developments, which, if realised, will attract new high-spending visitors to the Valleys.

I'm very pleased that this week the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport announced the approval of two projects that will make a significant difference to their areas within the Valleys. The £4.6 million Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal Adventure Triangle project will develop outdoor recreation, tourism and leisure activity along the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal in Torfaen and Caerphilly, and will be able to connect the upland area of Mynydd Maen. The project will be delivered by a partnership between Torfaen council, Caerphilly council, the Canal and River Trust, and the Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust. It will create a focus for visitors interested in outdoor recreation and adventure sports, bringing together a range of facilities to stimulate overnight visitor stays, and will help exploit the economic potential of the currently underused southern section of the canal and surrounding uplands.

Also detailed in the progress report is the upgrade of Llechwen Hall, a three-star country house hotel just outside Pontypridd, set in six acres of grounds. Welsh Government funding has been offered to expand the hotel’s capacity, add a gym and spa facilities and upgrade to a four-star hotel.

There is inspiring community work taking place across the Valleys. We want to build upon this and support people to take it further.

Presiding Officer, I'm sure you will agree with me that there is still very much to do, but, by working with our partners and with people living and working in the Valleys, we will deliver results.

During January's debate here on the 'Our Valleys, Our Future' delivery plan, I noted that the value of goods and services produced per head of population in the west Wales and the Valleys sub-region was still bottom across the UK, with the Gwent valleys second only to Anglesey as the lowest in the UK. I also noted that the Bevan Foundation's 'Tough times ahead? What 2018 might hold for Wales' report said that unemployment performance was unlikely to be enough to boost those parts of Wales where unemployment stood well above the UK figure, such as Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent, that there is nothing to be gained by pretending that all is rosy, and that performance was also unlikely to help young adults, with more than one in eight 16 to 24-year-olds out of work in Wales as a whole.

This plan includes within it an action: working with people who live and work in the south Wales Valleys and with the Cardiff region and Swansea bay city deals, UK Government, businesses and the third sector. In January, I asked how you were monitoring to ensure, if you believe you should, that this involves true co-production, turning the power thing upside down, if the Welsh Government is not to repeat the approaches of the last 18 years, thereby enabling people and professionals to share power and work in equal partnership.

Today's statement by the Bevan Foundation that the 'Our Valleys, Our Future' programme to improve the south Wales Valleys is bland and not reaching those who most need it is concerning. How do you respond to their statement today that this amounts to more of the same? How do you respond to their statement that recent investment in Taff's Well and Nantgarw was not in core Valleys areas? You state that 1,000 people started employment programmes. How many completed them? How many went into employment, of those 1,000? How do you respond to the Bevan Foundation's statement today that the target to get 7,000 into work sounds really impressive, but, if you look a bit deeper, that it's not very ambitious at all, that it's around about the numbers achieved over the last few years, and that if we carry on doing more of the same, the Valleys won't change? How do you respond to their statement that unemployment is 25 per cent of young males in some areas, and that there have been job losses in retail and small factories? And how do you respond to their statement that they are puzzled as to how the Welsh Government could live with deprivation virtually on its doorstep, without sufficient proposals to push investment and skills?

I'm grateful to the Conservative spokesperson for those questions. Can I say first of all that I did read the response of the Bevan Foundation? I actually enjoyed it. I thought it was a very good response, actually. I thought it was very well articulated, and I thought it made some very fair points. Can I say more than anything that I share the same frustration? I want to see a greater tempo of change. I want to see a greater tempo of delivering very real change to the communities that I represent and elsewhere. I think it's right and proper that that sense of impatience underpins a lot of our debate and much of what we say. I don't believe for one moment, and I don't seek to make any claims, that all in the garden is rosy, and I don't seek to make any claims that we have, in a little more than 18 months, turned around nearly a century of decline. I think it would be absurd were I to come to the Chamber and make those claims, and I think it would be absurd were the Government to seek to make those claims on our behalf. That's not what we are saying. In my statement, I said we were planting the seeds for sustainable transformation, and that is what we are seeking to do.

I reject any claim that we're not being ambitious enough. When I look at projects such as the landscape park, I look at something that is really transformational, and transformational in the sense of not simply putting investment in infrastructure or in a particular industrial complex, but inspirational in the way that we regard ourselves and our communities. One of the real tragedies of recent years is that too many people in the Valleys feel that there is very little hope for the future. We need to turn that around, and we need to turn that around not simply by making the physical investments that we need to be able to do—and we must do, and we will do—but also by investing in our people, our culture, our heritage and our environment. The landscape park brings together all of those different aspects of what we're seeking to achieve, and seeks to package it in a way that transforms not just the physical expression of who we are, but a cultural understanding of who we are as well. I think that speaks to the ambition of what we seek to achieve.

Now, I understand the debates about whether Taff's Well or Nantgarw are 'Valleys' enough. Are they deep enough into a particular Valley or not? Are they in the Valleys at all? I have to say that it's not a debate I intend to join, either this afternoon or at any point.

I think the more fundamental point that was made by the Bevan Foundation is more important, and that is the importance of investment in the Heads of the Valleys area and parts of the upper Valleys region where there are more significant and deep-seated problems and difficulties. For those of us who campaigned for the dualling of the A465—the Heads of the Valleys road—something like a decade ago now, we did that not to build a bypass past our communities, but to create an opportunity for real connectivity between the Heads of the Valleys area and the wider economy. What we saw that as being was a means of developing an industrial strategy for the Heads of the Valleys. I've already held one seminar on how we do that and how we maximise the advantage of that investment, and we'll be returning to that in September, because, for me, what is important is that we put in place the investments that we need to put in place to create sustainable and well-paid employment, but we also put in place the investments to ensure that that employment and that way of living is sustainable for the future. So, certainly we will not be living with deprivation. We do not wish to live with deprivation, and I'll say to the Conservative Member for North Wales that I see deprivation all too often when I return to my constituency after my duties here. I am impatient to change that. That is why I came into politics in the first place, and that is what I and this Government seek to do.

Alun Davies is right, of course, that in the near enough century of economic crisis we've witnessed in the former coalfield communities, since the collapse of the coal price in 1924, we've had a series of interventions and initiatives and strategies, and I think they can all be summed up, really, as micro progress and macro decline. The question that I think we must pose to him, and I'm sure he poses it to himself, is: how can this initiative escape that fate? We've had, time after time, raised expectations and dashed hopes, and that would be the ultimate disservice to these communities.

So, I welcome the progress report. There are many things in it that it's difficult not to like at the micro level, but, if it is to be genuinely transformational, then I think we need to engage with the kind of critical challenge—and I'm glad that he was positive about the critique offered by the Bevan Foundation, because I share some it—. Are we targeting the right things, is the focus correct? You referred to geography, and that's a critical question as well. Are the interventions collectively on a sufficient scale compared to the challenge, and are the structures right? I'm just digging very briefly into some of this.

Jobs: the only figure—the major figure that we have in targets—is the 7,000 jobs. There is a little bit of confusion there because, actually, if we look at the job creation record, or the number of jobs in the Valleys taskforce area, actually, over the five-year period to 2016, it went up to 22,000. So, at least on the face of it, unless you can correct me, it seems that the target is less ambitious than the trend rate over the previous five-year period. Even digging a little bit further than that, isn't really the issue the quality of those jobs? The problem now in many of these Valleys communities is not the number of jobs per se; it is the quality, it is the low-skill and low-paid nature of many of those jobs. It's a productivity problem and then it's about investing in skills.

On the issue of whether it is of sufficient scale, if you look at some of the earlier initiatives—the strategic regeneration areas, for example, under a previous administration, the One Wales Government—there were designated pots of money in what were effectively versions of the strategic hubs that he's created. We still don't have any clarity about the amount of global investment that is going into this programme or, indeed, attached to those strategic hubs. When will we get the assurances that, actually, we're going to get significant investment over the course of a generation, which, actually, is necessary in order to effect change?

And, finally, when we compare the Valleys taskforce—. And I also pay tribute to the incredibly impressive engagement that's gone on and the volunteers that sit on the taskforce, but, when you compare that to the structures of the city regions—the city regions, which, through their governance structures, involve many of the key agencies, including local government, and have huge budgets attached to them—then it's an unequal equation at the moment and it's no surprise that there is this concern that what is happening is the magnet of the M4 corridor within those city regions is continuing to wield its enormous power. And how can the Valleys taskforce drive the necessary investment in a different direction to the core Valleys areas that he referred to earlier?

Presiding Officer, before answering the questions from the Plaid Cymru spokesperson, I think that Members on all sides of the Chamber would like to join me in welcoming him back to this place and congratulating him and wishing his family well in the future. I think all of us on all sides of the Chamber want to pass on our good wishes to you.

Can I say this? In terms of where we are today, you've asked some very fundamental questions and, if I'm completely honest with you in answering them, I will say to you, 'Is the focus correct? Are the interventions correct? Are the structures in place?' I hope so. But let me say this: I am impatient for change. I am not content and I will not come here simply to say that what we've put in place over the last 18 months or so will remain in place. I'm continually looking at the structures and the processes that we have in place, and, if I do not believe that they're delivering the change we want to see, then I will have no hesitation at all in making the changes to ensure that we do achieve the change that we want to see. So, I hope—.

His characterisation of previous initiatives—micro progress and macro decline—is a well-made criticism and that is a criticism that we hope to learn from rather than repeat. It is not my wish, this afternoon, to simply come here and say, 'We have a report, and, come what may, whatever criticisms are made of that report, I will defend it in a ditch'. That is not my purpose. My purpose is to come here and report honestly and clearly and to learn from the critiques made, both by Members here and by the wider community, which is why, like you—. I probably enjoyed reading the Bevan Foundation's report slightly less than you did, if I'm completely honest, but I thought the arguments were good and well made.

So, in terms of the scaling up of our ambition, that is the key challenge facing us. Ensuring that we're able to put the investments in place in strategic hubs, which will then successfully lever in the private sector investment, is the key challenge. Ensuring that we do have the relationship with city regions and other strategic bodies is a key challenge. And I'm not convinced that we have that in place at the moment, if I'm completely honest in my responses.

But let me say this: the taskforce itself—. And this is one area where I am concerned about where this debate goes sometimes. Too often, people believe that the taskforce is itself a Government body that has a life of its own—its own headed notepaper and flag and a headquarters building somewhere. It isn't. The taskforce is a way of focusing Welsh Government approach and policy on the Valleys of south Wales. So, when we talk about the taskforce, what we're talking about is the approach and policy of the Welsh Government and not simply a group of civil servants or a single Minister or a group of Ministers acting independently of Government. So, all the resources we have available to us are the resources of Government and those resources need to be brought to bear on the issues of deprivation that were very well described by Mark Isherwood.

And, in terms of what we're seeking to achieve, the target is 7,000 people rather than 7,000 jobs. But the overall criticism made by the Plaid Cymru spokesperson is well made again. We are looking at the quality of work and we are looking at Wales as a fair work nation. The reason I wanted to specifically acknowledge the work of Professor Dickens in my opening statement was to make that very point. We recognise and we know that if we look at employment levels alone in the Valleys we don't tell the true story. In fact, we learn the wrong lessons. All too often, people in employment in many parts of the Valleys, including my own constituency, and I'm sure parts of the Member's constituency in Carmarthenshire as well, are working in poorly paid jobs that are insecure and don't have the opportunities for skills development that we would wish to see. So, what we need to do is not simply ensure that people have that sort of low skilled, insecure, poorly paid work available to them, but that we have the sort of jobs that will lead to careers in the Valleys and in the Heads of the Valleys and in all parts of the Valleys. That is our ambition and, in developing the target for 7,000 people, what we wanted to do—. The target didn't appear out of thin air; where it came from was to bring the Valleys parts of the local authorities in question up to the same levels as the rest of Wales, and to achieve that in five years. That is the scale of our ambition.

The Member is a very good and skilled economic historian; he knows the difficulties that have faced the Valleys over decades. What we seek to do is to plant the seeds of change, and that will take more than 18 months and it'll take more than two years. But what I hope we'll be able to do is to demonstrate that we have in place the foundations for a very different future for our Valleys.

Thanks to the Minister for today's progress report on the Welsh Government's ongoing Valleys initiative. When opposition spokesmen and politicians discuss your plans, we normally do have a little bit of prelude about lots of Valleys plans that have been before, and Adam's given us that prelude again today—a very informed one—but we know that we need to get away from the past failures.

We in UKIP are hopeful that this initiative will lead to some progress in the Valleys and there are good things contained in the update today. We think, overall, of course, any initiative is a good one as long as it has good intentions and it means to be meaningful. You stated last time around that what you didn't want to do was to create any new bureaucracies. You didn't want a secret conclave of politicians, but what you did want was to bring the people of the Valleys into the discussion, and I agree with you that we don't want to create things that appear to be more tiers of government. It is crucial, I think, that we do bring the voice of the Valleys into this discussion and that we allow people in the Valleys to have a meaningful say in plans for their own future. So, I'm encouraged by the talk of the local authorities that have been involved, bringing events like summits and workshops into play, so that we do get that engagement with local people.

But, of course, Adam has raised the issue that, in some ways, this kind of reacts against, perhaps, the city region plans, which will be focusing on the fact that the Valleys are proximate to the M4 corridor, whereas what you want to do with the Valleys plan is to actually bring investment into the upper Valleys. Of course, we do have to consider what the Valleys actually constitute and that there is a meaningful difference between the southern corridor end and the upper Valleys. I know you acknowledged that there is a difference. We don't want to get too much into it, because investment in the Valleys as such is a good thing, but I think there is a distinct difference between the two ends of the Valleys. So, we have to be a bit focused about where we do put any investment.

Now, going back to the public engagement, how will you ensure that the voice of local people will continue to be represented in your plans, and will that voice lead to meaningful change? You did mention the relationship with the city regions and that the shape of it at the moment isn't as you would like it to be, so, if you could shed a little bit more light on that, that would be good. The primary need is the need for good quality and sustainable jobs. Yes, they need to be high-quality jobs, not—. We need to move away from low skills and try to get people into higher skilled jobs, so, clearly, that involves a need to retrain people and a big factor is giving an increased opportunity to train and retrain people so that people of all ages in the Valleys will be able to access those jobs. What specific commitments will be given to retraining? You're going to have to work with employers, with local colleges and with careers advisors, so what will your engagement be with employers and colleges and with Careers Wales as you take your plans forward? Particular points were raised last time, in fact, by Hefin David, who has got a lot of experience, clearly, of higher and further education—he mentioned that more part-time study and more franchised study was needed and that local colleges would have to take that responsibility on. So, what are your thoughts on those precise points? 

Transport is going to be key. Mick Antoniw and Adam Price have both in the past cited the need for a circle line around the Valleys, which the current plans for the south Wales metro do, to some extent, provide for. So, I think we need to make sure that the metro doesn't end up just being another route into Cardiff; we do need it to have that interconnection between the Valleys. What will you be doing to ensure that that interconnecting idea remains in place as plans for the metro progress, and can you offer anything to assure us or to help keep the metro from perhaps bypassing these plans in future? Perhaps, if it scales down its investment, there is a danger that that interconnecting idea could disappear. 

We also have local schemes; a couple of them were mentioned today. That's very welcome. The canal scheme sounds like a good initiative. I met last week with several people involved with the Rhondda tunnel scheme. So, I wonder what part schemes like that will have in your thinking, and are you looking to develop more local transport schemes as we go forward? Diolch yn fawr.  

Presiding Officer, one of the issues that was raised with us at almost every public event we've done over the last two years has been the issue of local transport. Most people raise issues around local buses rather than the metro system, and I think it's important that we do recognise that, in developing the metro, we are developing and delivering a transport network that does go beyond simply the trains that quite often form the highlights of that. So, we will be ensuring that transport links lie at the heart of what we're doing. When we identified the seven strategic hubs, we identified areas that were accessible by public transport and areas that would be served by the metro in the future so that we do have a spatial and strategic view of where we will be focusing investment in the future, and the metro will form an absolutely essential part of that. 

In terms of the issues that the UKIP spokesperson raises on apprenticeships and training, clearly, we will be ensuring that the employability programme that the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning has launched is active in the Valleys, and it has a focus on the Valleys. We're also developing a shared apprenticeship model in Merthyr Tydfil that will ensure that we are able to develop and learn the lessons of some of the other projects, such as the Aspire project, based in my own constituency, which will ensure that we have a means of delivering skills, training and apprenticeships that is sustainable and reaches all the different parts of the Valleys, and the different skills required for sustainable jobs in the Valleys. 

But can I say that the UKIP spokesperson makes a point of ensuring that local people are involved in the design of all of these different projects and programmes? We have rooted all that we've done in the ambitions that have been shared with us from people in and around the communities of the Valleys. This hasn't simply been co-produced in the way that the Conservative spokesperson has said, but it's been rooted in the ambitions and the visions of people throughout the whole of the Valleys region. We have spent time and we have invested time not simply in talking with people, but listening to what those people have said to us. And one of the key things they've said to us—and the Plaid Cymru spokesperson referred to this in his remarks—has been that all too often expectations have been raised only for those hopes to be dashed. What I want to be able to do through this programme of listening and talking, and by publishing a delivery plan, is to be held to account for the promises that we make, so that people here—Members on all sides of the Chamber here—will be able to hold us to account for what we deliver and what we say we will deliver, the timetables and the targets that we set, but, at the same time, people across the Valleys will be able to hold us to account as well. And I think, in terms of winning and rebuilding trust in politics, that is essential for the future. 

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for the update? I think there is, Alun, much to welcome in the statement that you've presented today. Like you, representing a Valleys community, I've been hugely supportive of the work of the taskforce, what it has set out to achieve and the way in which it has engaged with communities right the way across the Valleys to get to the point that we're at now. But you will appreciate that I'm going to make no apologies for, once again, taking this opportunity to make a parochial point about the upper Rhymney valley. While I welcome the kind of investment that we've seen in things like the delivery of the new Idris Davies School in Abertysswg, for instance, I do remain concerned that Rhymney is becoming a forgotten corner of the Valleys. There's been no obvious or substantial economic investment coming its way, despite it being so strategically placed next to the Heads of the Valleys road.

As has already been mentioned, I think this is the point that the Bevan Foundation were trying to make in their statement, particularly in relation to the metro investment in Taff's Well. And I know you don't want to go into that and I know that others have mentioned it, but I will repeat it: it's closer to Cardiff than it is to the Valleys. I have raised this before and I think it is a question of economic priorities in terms of investment, and that's the reason I've questioned that. Because I think that such an investment like that, if that had been in the Rhymney valley, would have been transformational in terms of the quality jobs that it would have provided, the skills it would have brought with it, and the positive knock-on effect on the wider economy, not just in Rhymney, but across the Heads of the Valleys. It would have ticked every box in the Valleys taskforce objectives, as well as in the Government's Better Jobs Closer to Home programme. 

So, given the Welsh Government has to lead on the delivery of investment in our Valleys communities and that it does hold the levers of economic power in so many areas, I'm pleased that the Cabinet Secretary for the economy is coming to Rhymney on Thursday, when he's going to be meeting with local representatives and some businesses there, and he will be able to see first-hand and hear from them what's expected. So, my question to you, as Cabinet Secretary for public services is: will you also visit Rhymney with me and discuss the progress in our Valleys strategies for these communities and give some assurance that this Valley will not be left behind? Because frankly, while, of course, I totally understand that things can't happen overnight, and I know that you'll agree with this, if 'Our Valleys, Our Future' doesn't deliver in places like Rhymney, then it will have failed.

Presiding Officer, the Rhymney valley has some great advocates speaking on its behalf. I know that Dawn Bowden, the Member for Merthyr and Rhymney, speaks for the upper Rhymney valley and our colleague Hefin David speaks for the lower parts of the Rhymney valley with equal ferocity, shall we say. I understand the points that have been made, and I recognise those points. I'm very happy to come across to Rhymney at any point to speak and to visit and to have these conversations. But I think the fundamental point you make about the communities of the upper Valleys, of the Heads of the Valleys, is absolutely correct. I think you attended a seminar back in April to discuss some of those particular issues. All too often, we look at the Valleys as a whole without understanding the differential in the different communities and the importance of having a very focused strategy to address some of the more deep-seated issues.

For me, the Heads of the Valleys will provide the litmus test for us for whether we succeed or fail. The points made by the Plaid Cymru spokesperson were well made, and if we are to pass the tests that have been set by you and others here, it will be in places like Pontlottyn or Rhymney that that will be seen. So, let me say this: we brought together a group of people in the spring to look at how the dualling of the A465, the Heads of the Valleys road, can be used as a catalyst for change, and I believe that we need to now look at what steps and what investments we have to make in the infrastructure of the upper Valleys to realise that ambition. I can see the Member for Cynon Valley is here as well, and we know that from Hirwaun right across to Brynmawr, our communities face some very significant challenges that are beyond those faced by other areas—and we can debate as to whether they are part of the Valleys or not at perhaps another time.

The key issue of the upper Valleys is firmly in the centre of my mind, and I hope that what we'll be able to do in the early autumn is to have in place an industrial strategy that is aimed at those upper Valley communities—an industrial strategy for the Heads of the Valleys, which looks to see how we can secure sustainable employment in and around the area of the Tower Colliery site in the upper Cynon valley, across to Merthyr itself. I think the Crucible project that we've debated before will provide a real boost for Merthyr in the way forward, and the upper Rhymney valley needs exactly the sort of investment that you've described. For my own constituency, it's about developing places like Tafarnaubach industrial estate or Rassau industrial estate, ensuring that the Tech Valleys investment doesn't simply stay in Ebbw Vale, but is able to act as a boost for investment across the whole of the Heads of the Valleys region. That is the ambition that I think we all share, and we need to make that a reality. So, I very much agree with the points that have been made.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your update here today. You'll know that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the Valleys taskforce and its delivery plan, as are so many of my constituents as well. It's good to see you referencing the former Tower Colliery site, which I believe has excellent potential due to its unique connectivity links. I look forward to seeing what can be done with that site with Welsh Government help in the future.

I have a few questions for you today. Firstly, in relation to the Valleys landscape parks, and particularly joining those up, you may have seen recently in the news that RCT council has been appointed as the lead authority to take forward the reopening of former railway tunnels, including the Abernant tunnel, which links Cwmbach in my constituency with Merthyr Tydfil. With your comments around heritage and tourism, do you agree with me that these structures, including the Abernant tunnel designed by Brunel, could be used as levers to support tourism being brought into the area and also to encourage active travel? How can the Welsh Government support taking these projects forward?

Secondly, a number of interventions around health were mentioned in 'Our Valleys, Our Future' and with last week's timely seventieth anniversary of the NHS, and that institution's strong links to the Valleys, are you able to say any more on Welsh Government actions to meet these goals?

Thirdly, and finally, I recently spoke at a conference organised under the umbrella of the mutuals alliance, which highlighted how co-operative and mutual models could be used to deliver services in a range of areas. How are you linking into this sector and encouraging the development of real grass-roots, co-operative alternatives?

Presiding Officer, the points made by the Member for Cynon Valley are very well made. In terms of health and co-operatives, of course, we have just celebrated what many people described as the seventieth anniversary of the national health service. Of course, for those of us from Tredegar, Presiding Officer, it is simply the seventieth anniversary of the Act of Parliament that created the national health service. We have been celebrating the one hundred and twenty-eighth anniversary of the founding of the Tredegar medical aid and sick relief fund that led to the creation of the health service. And that's a very well-made point, because those of us who are Members of the co-operative party recognise that there are ways that active citizenship can be used in order to deliver significant change in our communities, which takes us back to many of the themes that have run through our conversation this afternoon.

My ambition for the Valleys isn't simply doing things to the Valleys whether the Valleys like it or not, but active citizenship determining our futures throughout the Valleys. The future that we would want to see in the Sirhowy valley and in Blaenau Gwent may well be very different to the view of the Member for Neath on the Neath valley and the Dulais valley, where we were very recently, where we'd have a different set of priorities and a very different set of ambitions. But it is right and proper that we put in place the means of enabling active citizens to take control of their own futures and to ensure that we provide the means and the funding and the structures to enable people to do that.

When I think of the great history and heritage of the Valleys—we talked about the Abernant tunnel this afternoon, but we've also talked about the tunnel in the Rhondda valleys on previous occasions—there are opportunities here for us to change the future of the Valleys. I think the Valleys landscape park is one of these very, very exciting initiatives and concepts that could actually do far more than it says on the tin. It can actually change the way that we look at ourselves, which is absolutely crucial for me. When I was talking to people in Aberdare, in the Dare Valley Country Park, a couple of months ago about their ambitions for the future, it struck a chord with me about my own ambitions, and that we share that vision for the future.

When I think of the landscape park, I think also of gateways—areas into the Valleys—and I think the Dare Valley Country Park could be one of those areas. I think Merthyr could be one of those areas. I think areas around my own constituency, with the heritage of the national health service, could also be one of those, and you can bring in Blaenavon with Big Pit, and other areas as well. There are a number of ways in which we can transform the future, but we will only do it if we root our visions with the visions of people living in the Valleys at the same time. When we were talking about the economy of the Heads of the Valleys, it was great to see Tyrone O'Sullivan, the great miners' leader, talking there about his ambitions for the future of the Tower site, and what that can continue to offer the people not just of Hirwaun and Aberdare, but people of the whole of the Heads of the Valleys region. It's that ambition that I hope we can unleash in the future.

Finally, David Rees.

Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I thank you for your statement this afternoon. I very much welcome the taskforce and its ambitions, and I want to see it work. Obviously, I want to be able to see the lessons learned from that apply to all the valleys in south Wales, because, as you know, the Afan valley is not included in your hub areas. You've actually identified the Valleys landscape park as one opportunity, and Vikki Howells has mentioned the Abernant tunnel. The one she didn't mention was the Rhondda to Blaengwynfi tunnel—to ensure that that all works as well.

But there are developments in the Afan valley, which is not included, that have looked at projects that will develop the tourism industry there, with the Afan Valley resort project or the Rhondda tunnel project. These are projects focusing upon bringing tourism in. Will you confirm to me now that, because we're not in the hub areas, we will not be missing out on the opportunities to benefit from the Valleys landscape park, so that we can build into that and work together?

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

I can absolutely make that confirmation today. When you take decisions about strategic investment, you do create that sort of situation whereby some people feel they're in and others feel that they are not. I recognise that, and I know that others have made very similar points to me at different times. But let me say this: I think all of us who have travelled through the Afan valley and have travelled up to Blaengwynfi, and over the top there, have seen a landscape that is comparable with anywhere in the world. It's a fantastic place to be; it's a fantastic proposition, if you like, for tourism. It brings together some fantastic opportunities, and certainly, the conversations that we've had about the future of tourism in the Afan valley are, I think, some of the most positive conversations I've had about the future of the valleys. Certainly, the investments that we've debated and discussed in the Afan valley, I think, will transform not just the Afan valley, but the perception of the valleys and the place of the valleys, both in terms of tourism from Wales and the rest of the UK, but also our own perception of ourselves.

I think the Valleys, in terms of tourism, have more potential than almost any other part of Wales; that potential is currently untapped. What we have to do is to ensure that we put in place the structures that enable tourism to be a key part of our future, but also—and this is important for me in finishing, Deputy Presiding Officer—that the benefits of that tourism stay within the valleys, and that we see Valleys communities benefiting from that in a very real way, and also, returning to the point made by the Member for the Cynon Valley, that we do also ensure that it's a part of who we are in the future in terms of public health, and in terms of providing opportunities for people to explore and understand in a way that we've been losing in the last few decades. So, the reopening of the tunnels is one way, an understanding of our heritage is another way. Opening up access to the hills and the mountains and the countryside around the Valleys, and within the Valleys, I think, is a way of reconnecting ourselves with our past to create a very different future.

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.