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.