3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services: Update on the Our Valleys, Our Future Delivery Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 27 November 2018.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 2:51, 27 November 2018

Thank you very much. The Conservative spokesperson seems to have conspired to ask the same question half a dozen times. I'll try to answer it only once. In terms of the approach that we're taking, we are seeking to involve people from the point at which we begin through the point at which we develop our concepts and deliver those concepts. There isn't—. He asked on a number of occasions in that contribution about co-production in different areas of our work, but the whole of what we do is about working with people. It's not the ownership of Welsh Government; it is Welsh Government acting as a catalyst, bringing people together to enable us to use not only the power of Government but the creativity of people and the ambition and vision of people living in and throughout the Valleys.

He asked a specific question on UK schemes and UK employability schemes. I'm disappointed that he doesn't understand that the regional manager for the DWP is actually a member of the taskforce. So, all of these matters are actually hardwired into our discussions and our debates. This is a fundamental part of what we're doing. He says it's an eclectic mix of schemes—people are creative, and creativity isn't always clean and tidy, I'm afraid. But let me say this to him: we have a number of entrepreneurs represented on the taskforce as well, and the work streams that we are developing on the taskforce themselves bring people together and enable people to make a contribution and to play different roles.

So, this isn't a matter of compartmentalising our work in the way that the Conservative spokesperson has sought to do; this is fundamental, about what the taskforce actually is at it roots, at its heart. In terms of the way that we're taking things forward, we are seeking to be more inventive or creative in the way we talk and the way we communicate with people. I've invested a great deal of time, whether it's in public meetings, talking to smaller groups of people—. Last week, I was in Blaenavon doing a Facebook live event, talking to people and answering their questions on social media. We do this in a number of different ways over a period of time.

I do notice that the Conservative spokesperson for these matters tries on a number of occasions in his contributions to this place to pit parts of Wales against each other—region against region, community against community. I wish that he would desist in doing so. It diminishes him and his contributions. This is not a matter of the Valleys of south Wales having any sort of preferential treatment over another part of the country—this is about addressing poverty; it is about addressing the poverty that exists in these places.

He's a member of a party that has actively contributed to the creation of that poverty. For those of us who were brought up in the Valleys of south Wales, we saw what Conservative Governments—successive UK Conservative Governments—did to us. They did nothing to support our communities, but everything to undermine our communities. [Interruption.] They did everything to take away the economic base of what we were seeking to do. This is about redressing that balance. This is about redressing that balance and tackling that poverty. I hear him, Deputy Presiding officer, calling from his seat. This isn't about setting north against south or east against west. When he does that, he diminishes himself. And I will not allow him to do that to this scheme or to diminish what we are seeking to do. This is not about pitting community against community, it's about tackling poverty, and I know that the Conservatives have difficulty with that concept, but it's what this Government was elected to do.