8. Debate on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report: Enterprise Zones: boldly going?

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:52 pm on 11 July 2018.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 5:52, 11 July 2018

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It does seem to me that enterprise zones have been, perhaps, a series of place-based experiments and will continue to merit further study over the coming years. The clear lesson, I think, to date, is that there is a real benefit to knowing your strengths and bringing partners together around a shared vision, and I think that the lesson learnt is that this lesson must be a building block for the new regional approach to economic development that the Welsh Government is developing.

The question that I first presented in the opening comments was: have enterprise zones boosted jobs and growth as planned? There was some uncertainty whether that was a 'yes' or a 'no', and I think Adam Price, in his contribution, went into a bit more detail in that regard, and also in terms of obtaining the information from Government in order to scrutinise this area effectively. I would say that it was Adam Price, Mark Isherwood and David Rowlands who went to visit the Snowdonia and Anglesey zones, so I'm very pleased that each of the Members covered their visit extensively in their contributions. Joyce Watson highlighted the Haven Waterway project and board, to no surprise, in that part of the region that she represents.

David Rowlands, I noticed, focused a little bit on the issue of job creation versus costs, which is something I didn't go into in detail in my opening comments, but this is something that the committee did look at quite extensively. The Cabinet Secretary, perhaps, had some different figures that he presented in terms of that area, but I think perhaps this does highlight how the drip-feed approach of information sharing has not been helpful. But I was very pleased with the Cabinet Secretary in regard to his response on improved indicators and performance measures. I think that is very welcome indeed, and I'm very pleased with those comments.

Mark Isherwood focused on quite a few areas. I was particularly pleased that he focused on the issue of commercial units being available, and property availability and land availability. This is an issue that was raised by a number of enterprise zones, to my surprise, because in my own constituency this is particularly a problem, and I thought it was perhaps located to mid Wales, but it's not, it's an issue right across Wales—in the north, in the south, in the west. I know that the committee are very keen to come back to the issue of land availability, property availability, commercial units and the support from Welsh Government to build commercial units as well. I appreciate that the Cabinet Secretary is actually coming up to my constituency the week after next to meet with businesses who have the difficulty—businesses that want to expand but simply can't expand because there are no commercial units to be made available for them.

I would like to thank, in particular, all the chairs of the enterprise zones for their co-operation, and in particular John Idris Jones and Neil Rowlands for their assistance in arranging visits to their areas. I'd like to thank all the committee members who took part in this debate this afternoon, and all the members of the committee for their work; and also, of course, say thanks for the great support we had from committee services, as always, that contributed towards our report. I'd also like to thank all those who gave evidence either in oral or written form as well. I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to all those who took part in this debate this afternoon. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.