The next item, therefore, is the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services—update on the Our Valleys, Our Future delivery plan. And I call on the Cabinet Secretary to make the statement—Alun Davies.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to you for providing this opportunity to inform Members about the latest updates that we have made to our ambitions and plans for the south Wales Valleys. This is set out in the 'Our Valleys, Our Future' delivery plan.

Just a few months ago, in July, I had the pleasure of updating Members about the first 12 months of progress since we published 'Our Valleys, Our Future'. Since then, the ministerial taskforce for the south Wales Valleys has been reviewing its work and the more than 60 actions that we identified in the delivery plan, to ensure that they are still fit for purpose, and will continue to contribute to our three overarching priorities. Members will remember the three priorities at the heart of the taskforce’s work were based on the feedback we received from people living and working in the Valleys. They told us that they wanted good jobs and the skills to do them, better public services and improvements, and a focus on their local community. This year’s update of the delivery plan has focused attention on those areas, which add real value to Valleys communities.

We have identified new actions and programmes that will make a positive difference over the next 12 months, such as a focus on maximising the benefits of the investment on the A465 corridor for local communities alongside this important development. We know the improved transport links for the Heads of the Valleys have the potential to unlock new housing developments and tourism, new job opportunities, and economic development for the region. The investment in the dualling of this road has to be measured and understood in the increased economic activity and the creation of new opportunities, which will flow from the dualling of the A465. The taskforce has been working with stakeholders and partners to identify and build on these opportunities for investment associated with the dualling project.

Over the next 12 months, we will continue this work to develop priority areas for the Heads of the Valleys. Deputy Presiding Officer, I recently announced a £25 million capital fund to support the seven strategic hubs over the next two years. Local authorities in the hub areas have led the development of the blueprints for long-term improvements in each strategic hub. Working with the Valleys authorities and the Cardiff capital region city deal we will confirm further details of the plans for the seven hubs in the new year. 

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

I am pleased to say that we have made available development funding for some of the local authorities in the strategic hub areas. This will commission the feasibility and design of new integrated transport hubs, replacing, where necessary, existing rail and bus interchange and improving infrastructure and connectivity, which will incorporate the key metro development sites. The designs will also take into account the wider regeneration ambitions for these areas.

Business support remains a key area for us. We want to encourage the facilitation of entrepreneurship and enterprise amongst individuals, businesses and communities in the Valleys. I have provided funding for a focused business support campaign that identifies and brings together success amongst Valleys communities. I have also allocated funding for a pilot project to support a peer-to-peer network for high-growth Valleys-based business founders or leaders.

Harnessing digital technologies plays an important role in this updated plan. We have included three pilot schemes for the Valleys, which the taskforce’s digital work stream will oversee. The taskforce will work with Transport for Wales to ensure its new integrated responsive transport programme gets people from all parts of the Valleys to and from their health appointments more effectively, and we will be developing an app to support this. 

We will also pilot the Wi-Fi i Fi programme–an exciting way opening up public sector broadband to create community Wi-Fi hotspots to be used by everyone in the local area. Again, an app will be created, which shows where these hotspots are in the Valleys. We are also investing in the Wales-wide mapping tool 'Lle'. We will develop its functionality and content to enable easy access to a host of useful data to inform and encourage investment in the Valleys.

Deputy Presiding Officer, last month I updated members about the creation of a Valleys regional park and our ambition to use the park to strengthen the national and international profile of the region. Last month I published a prospectus, inviting others to help shape the thinking behind this regional park. The prospectus has been well received here and across the Valleys. There was also a striking consensus that to succeed we need to work collaboratively with a focus on the Valleys as a whole. 

We have refreshed the 'My Community' section in the delivery plan to deliver the first phase of the Valleys regional park, focusing on the three themes of landscape: culture and identity; recreation and wellbeing; and then communities and enterprise. At the heart of our plans for the regional park are the gateway locations across the Valleys, which will help tell the stories of these Valleys. These gateway sites will encourage people to be more active and to explore the beautiful landscapes of the Valleys. I have said that I intend to announce the first location of these gateways by the end of the year and deliver phase 1 by spring 2019.

Deputy Presiding Officer, working closely with local authorities and other partners in the Valleys, I am pleased to be able to announce today that Dare Valley Country Park, Caerphilly castle, Cwmcarn forest, Blaenavon World Heritage Visitor Centre—[Interruption.]—I can't hear that—Cyfarthfa Park and Bryngarw Country Park will be amongst those gateway sites. I will announce further sites in the coming weeks. The £7 million of capital funding for the development of the Valleys regional park, which the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced in the draft budget for 2019-20, will be invested in these gateways and the iconic trails that connect the Valleys. The detailed plans for utilising the whole of that allocation will be announced in due course.   

One of the defining features of the Valleys taskforce has been its ongoing engagement with people living and working in the Valleys. It's been really important for all of us to talk to and listen to people and local communities. That's how this plan was and has been developed and shaped. That engagement will continue to be at the heart of our approach. The taskforce will also continue to work across the whole of Welsh Government and with both city deals. We want to be a catalyst not just for change in the Valleys, but for a more joined-up Government working together to deliver for the people we represent. This delivery plan cuts across all the Welsh Government departments and all of my Cabinet colleagues’ portfolios. I’d like to thank all of my colleagues and their departments for their commitment to this agenda.

Deputy Presiding Officer, we want this plan to meet the needs and ambitions of people living and working in the Valleys and their expectations. The taskforce has already began to make a real and lasting difference to the south Wales Valleys, and it will continue to do so.

You state that one of the defining features of the work of the ministerial taskforce for the south Wales Valleys has been its ongoing engagement with people living and working in the Valleys, stressing the importance of talking to and listening to people and local communities. Of course, co-production, which is in Welsh legislation, goes further, very much in terms of the sustainability duty and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, and that involves designing and delivering services together, sharing power and working in equal partnership. So, does this go beyond talking to and listening to, and, if so, how are you ensuring that services are being designed and delivered on a parity of power basis with local people, local communities and local organisations? 

Of course, west Wales and the Valleys, which, unfortunately, has continued to produce the lowest value of goods and services per head of all UK regions or areas, includes four north Wales counties, and this programme only addresses those in the south Wales Valleys part of that. Why is that? Or is that because you believe, possibly correctly, that the initiatives in north Wales behind the growth deal, the growth vision, the growth bid, are ticking the boxes up there? And, if you do believe that, and that's the reason why the four north Wales counties have been excluded, what consideration have you given to the way the six north Wales counties, the business sector and academia have come together and, with a voice of unity, brought forward their proposals for that region and closing that prosperity gap there?

The Welsh Government's 'Our Valleys, Our Future' progress report 2018, I have to say, is a bit of eclectic mix of cobbled together Welsh Government programmes and policies. As it rightly says:

'more good jobs and opportunities to get skills are needed' and that you're committed to exploring options to target investment and create new strategic hubs areas, which you refer to in your statement as:

'areas where public money is focused to provide opportunities for the private sector to invest and create new jobs.'

So, how has the private sector been incorporated within that, not just as someone to talk to and listen to, but in the context, as in north Wales, where those solutions are being co-produced for delivery together?

You refer in this report to the Welsh Government's knowledge and analytical services department identifying areas across south Wales Valleys where economic potential was greatest. Again, similarly, how have they worked with the business and third sectors to reach their conclusions, or have they simply done this talking to and listening to people?

You refer to the Welsh Government's employability plan, published in March this year. Of course, we understand it's not due to roll out until next year, although a range of employment programmes are now operating in Wales, such as the programmes being delivered through Remploy and the Department for Work and Pensions. We know from previous responses in this Chamber from Welsh Government members that those programmes have got Welsh Government input. So, can you tell us if and how, therefore, those UK schemes operating in Wales with Welsh Government input have been or will be incorporated into the work in 'Our Valleys, Our Future'?

You refer, in the report, to Ferndale developing a hub with a range of community-based services, and I love the sound of that—that sounds brilliant. But will you give consideration to the work of Dr Karen Sankey in Wrexham, whose work has been identified, I know, by the Welsh Government's health department, who's developed a community hub model to bring together and address the physical, psychological and social needs of people in that community, including those on the streets, as a best practice model?

You refer to account executives for secondary schools and working with Careers Wales. Again, how will that address the concern that was raised when Careers Wales was no longer able to facilitate pupils in schools going into the workplaces for practical work experience? Are we purely talking about within school, and, if so, how will that integrate with the businesses themselves?

Two very, very short questions remaining, and then I'm finished. South Wales metro—you refer to a long-term programme. How long term, really, are you thinking about with this, in dialogue with your colleagues? Because we keep hearing these things bandied around, and they do sound very positive, and, although I don't live in south Wales, I wish the people there every good wish, but when do you anticipate this being transport on the ground?

Finally, you refer in the report to the 20,000 affordable housing targets—of course, that includes home purchase, it includes intermediate rent, and provision by a range of providers. So, what collective housing needs assessment is at the core of this, not just to identify the numbers of units needed by people in the population, but the type and range of properties, whether that's social rent, intermediate rent, low-cost purchase or full market purchase or otherwise? Thank you.

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. 

I'm not convinced that this statement brings anything new to the table today, and I think the evidence for that is the attack that the Cabinet Secretary just made. Cabinet Secretary, you always seem to attack when you don't have any answers.

Anyway, you finished your statement today by saying that the delivery plan in front of us today cuts across all Welsh Government departments and all of your Cabinet colleagues' portfolios, so I'll use this opportunity to ask some questions today about how the Welsh Government's wider policy agenda affects the ambitions that you set out in your plan. 

A major element of supporting priority 1 of the delivery plan, which is to create good-quality jobs and the skills to do them, is, as you mention, the Welsh Government's childcare offer. Now, this offer will provide 30 hours of free early education and childcare to working parents of three and four-year-olds for 48 weeks of the year. As my Plaid Cymru colleague Llyr Gruffydd has consistently argued, by limiting the offer of free childcare provision to working parents only, you are actively creating another barrier for economically inactive parents from returning to work. This has also been supported by the children's commissioner, who stated that

'children whose parents are not employed will fall even further behind their peers if they miss out on this provision.'

Your target of helping 7,000 economically inactive and unemployed people in the Valleys into work was so that you could bring the Valleys parts of the local authorities in question up to the same levels as the rest of Wales. Cabinet Secretary, your Government's childcare offer will not support this aim. In fact, it'll make the situation in the Valleys even worse, leading to even more families being left behind. Therefore, as a member of the Government, what representations have you made to your colleagues to urge them to expand the childcare offer to all parents in Wales?

The problem in many of the Valleys communities is not the number of jobs, it's the quality of those jobs. It's the low-skilled and low-paid nature of many of those jobs and the fact that way too many of them are insecure jobs. The target of supporting 7,000 people into employment by 2021 is, of course, to be welcomed. However, without bringing new industries and developing existing ones to grow further, you may well support 7,000 people into employment on one hand, but the insecure nature of the labour market in the Valleys might well result in those job losses elsewhere in the same area. Therefore, can the Cabinet Secretary provide a target figure of how many jobs will be secured in the period up until 2021 as well?

Last week, the Welsh Government lost a vote in the Assembly calling for no more cuts to further education and lifelong learning, a sector that has been a persistent target for the cuts, now, over many, many years. If we are serious about reversing the long-term decline in the Welsh economy and raising skills, incomes and productivity, then the further education sector is absolutely crucial. A major element of the taskforce's delivery plan skills agenda will depend heavily on the Welsh Government's employability plan, for example, which will place demands and expectations on colleges and the wider skills and learning sector as crucial delivery partners. However, in reality, nobody can take these plans and sentiments forward when the funding isn't there to support these priorities. Therefore, how confident are you that the funding is there to deliver the training required to upskill the Valleys' labour force?

Now, I'm sure I don't need to explain to anyone how difficult it is to travel on the Valleys lines at the moment. It simply cannot carry on as things stand. That's why I welcome the development funding secured to commission the feasibility and design of new integrated transport hubs to ease travel opportunities into the new strategic hubs. Specifically, I welcome the commitment to looking at improvements in infrastructure as part of the metro development. Much of the focus with the metro development with regard to the Valleys is how best to connect Valleys communities with Cardiff, instead of considering how we connect the Valleys to each other. The idea for the Valleys circle line was not included in the next phase of the metro development. Therefore, can the Cabinet Secretary commit to ensuring that part of the development funding will go towards the feasibility of pursuing the creation of a circle line for the Valleys?  

I'm grateful to the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for her questions. I reflect and observe that when I answered questions on previous occasions—I think, last year—I was attacked by Plaid Cymru for placing in the plan policy issues that were directly targeted at the Valleys, and I notice that this afternoon she's decided to major on all of those policy issues that aren't directly targeted at the Valleys. I reflect on that because—[Interruption.] I said in the first paragraph, because—

Can you make him answer the questions, Deputy Presiding Officer, rather than—[Inaudible.] 

It's a statement, and the Minister has an opportunity to answer the questions in the way he wants to answer them. If that's not acceptable, then there are other methods that you could use. 

I will say to the Member that I listened to her questions, and perhaps she might listen to my answers. 

In terms of the childcare offer, it is a manifesto commitment and a commitment of the programme for government for this Government, and it will be delivered in the way that is being described, and it will continue to be delivered in the way that's described. It is, I believe, one of the most ambitious and generous childcare offers anywhere in the United Kingdom, and I make no apology for investing in childcare. And as a Minister at the beginning of this Government, I played my part in developing the opportunities for the childcare offer, and I saw the difference that it was making to people's lives up and down the Valleys and elsewhere.

Let me also say this to the Member: if she's read the updated delivery plan, she will know that we're also going further than simply offering childcare facilities and opportunities. We're also addressing the adverse childhood experiences that many children growing up in the Valleys will face in their lives. We're also talking to the police about how we can ensure that it's done in a holistic way, and we're looking at addressing the experiences of children growing up in, sometimes, some very difficult households. So, we are investing not simply in the childcare offer—and I reject her criticisms of it—but we're actually investing in a more holistic approach to the early years as well. So, we're going further than the suggestion she has made.

She criticises us for adopting the target of 7,000 people into work, rather than, I think, the point that she was making was this, creating a job creation target. What this target does is very, very clear. It ensures that the Valleys have the same economic profile and social profile as other parts of the country. I've said, Deputy Presiding Officer, in my answer to the Conservative spokesperson that the reason we established this taskforce is to address the poverty that exists in the Valleys of south Wales, and it is people who are affected by that poverty, and it is people who we are seeking to ensure are able to get back into work, and to have the sort of work that we want them to have.

I recognise very well—I recognise from my own constituency and I recognise from this work—the impact of underemployment in the Valleys, and the impact of poorly paid employment in the Valleys. We recognise that. We recognise—and that is why this Government is committed to creating Wales as a fair work nation so that we do work with business, and we do work with all sectors of the economy, and we invest in the foundational economy to actually create the work for people. But I defend us having a target of 7,000 people becoming economically active in this way, because that is what we've been advised will do most to invest in the people and the communities of the Valleys of south Wales. 

We do have the funding in place for this, and we do have the funding in place for the training opportunities and for the metro. But let me say this—let me be absolutely clear in doing this—what we've been trying to do over the last year has been to ensure that we not only hardwire accountability into what we do, but we actually hardwire our targets into that as well so that Members are able to come here to question me on what we're doing and what we're achieving. But that has to be done on the basis of the plans that we are publishing and the targets that we are setting. I believe that the targets are ambitious, visionary and demonstrate that it is this Government and Welsh Labour that have a very real, ambitious vision for the Valleys of south Wales.

On 16 November, I visited Welsh ICE, which is based in Caerphilly business park, and it was recently awarded Welsh Government funding to become a regional enterprise hub to encourage and support entrepreneurship, linking with all kinds of partners from universities, local businesses, colleges and the Development Bank of Wales. They're also linking up with satellites, who are to be confirmed, according to the development plan, and I'd like to hear more about that.

If it's going to be successful, Welsh ICE wants to support the Minister's ambition for connectivity, which has already been referred to, and help identify key partners. When I visited Welsh ICE, they showed me an infographic that demonstrated the businesses that were linking in with them. It was interesting that it was a kind of upside-down T shape in the fact that it was businesses from along the M4 corridor and then the Rhymney valley linking into Cardiff and not much outside of that area. So, there's certainly a challenge to get those different communities linking into Welsh ICE. I particularly want to see businesses from Bargoed and Senghenydd linking into Welsh ICE, but also from across those Valleys communities. Overwhelmingly, we see businesses interested in the southern parts; we need to connect the northern Valleys.

So, what can the Welsh Government do to encourage this? I notice in his statement that he mentions a focused business support campaign. Can he just elaborate on what he means by that and also what he means by the peer-to-peer network that he referred to in his statement? Some elaboration on those things also would assist Members in understanding how we're going to develop those northern Valleys communities and businesses.

The development of investment in the northern Valleys is a point that's been well made by the Member for Caerphilly over his time here, and it's something I clearly share for reasons that are clear. We have discussed the Rhymney valley with the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney as well. It is important that we're able to reach out beyond the southern parts of the Valleys of south Wales, and that's why we are putting in place a development plan that specifically looks at maximising the impact of the A465 dualling project, and we need to be able to deliver that over the coming six months or so.

In terms of Welsh ICE, I've clearly met with Welsh ICE, and we do have a representative on the taskforce who's taking forward the plans on entrepreneurship. What we hope to be able to do is use the model of Welsh ICE to be able to extend that to parts of the region in the south-east of Wales where we haven't got a similar sort of facility, and what I hope we'll be able to do is use individuals who are entrepreneurs in their own right to mentor and work with businesses in order to deliver the sort of help and support that is tailored for each individual business. So, it's very much a granular approach to ensuring that people who are establishing and running small businesses have exactly the support that they need—not the support that we believe that they need—and that's absolutely essential.

What I hope we'll be able to do is use the model of Welsh ICE in Caerphilly to be able to develop exactly that approach in other parts of the south-east of Wales.

I have two more speakers whose areas have been, I think, named in the Minister's statement. Therefore, I will take them, but if they can be brief, that would be helpful. Vikki Howells.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I welcome your comments about using the Heads of the Valley corridor as a tool for economic development. The former Tower colliery site in Hirwaun is ideally situated for these purposes and is, as you will know, currently undergoing restoration. What discussions have you had with the team at Tower Regeneration about how the Valleys taskforce can help to exploit the untapped potential of this site?

Secondly, it was good to hear about the discovery gateways and the mention of Dare Valley Country Park in particular. I agree with you—I think it would be an excellent location for that. I'm glad to see that it will also be backed up by a definite budget line. When will detailed plans for this be available?

I hope they'll be available early in the new year—in the next new year. I would expect that we would be able to make more detailed announcements in January or February of 2019. I certainly want us to be in a position to be able to make those investments in the current financial year. So, I want us to move ahead with some pace on that. I also want to be able to announce further discovery sites in the coming weeks, potentially before Christmas, but certainly early in the new year, in which we'll be able to build upon the basis upon which we're able to make these announcements today. So, I want to move with a fair degree of pace to move forward with this. I also believe that we need to create a far greater structure for the Valleys regional park in terms of how it will actually deliver what its potential will be, and I hope that we can put a structure in place immediately after Christmas as well, and certainly in the first quarter of 2019.

In terms of Tower colliery, Tower colliery were represented at the seminar we had, which kicked off, if you like, the work that we're doing on the A465 corridor in the spring. They've clearly been kept in touch with the work that is being undertaken by the group of people I've invited to develop an economic development plan for the Heads of the Valleys, and I agree with the Member for the Cynon Valley, the Tower colliery site is an important site, and I see it as being an important strategic site for the future of the A465 corridor. 

Finally, Rhianon Passmore.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, as the Assembly Member for Islwyn, I greatly welcome the £7 million Valley regional park announcement, and greatly welcome that Cwmcarn Forest Drive will be among the first wave of projects of the discovery gateways to be announced by the Welsh Government. Members will know how prized the historic Cwmcarn Forest Drive is in my constituency: it is one of the jewels in the Welsh crown, and it is very good news, indeed, for my constituency. It is exactly the effective partnership working between Welsh Government, local authorities and other parties working together—even in this age of Tory austerity, local government, Welsh Government, and their partner organisations will and can make a positive difference to our communities. Would the Cabinet Secretary be willing to meet with me at the Cwmcarn Forest Drive and meet representatives of the friends of the Cwmcarn Forest Drive to spread the word of this truly transformative potential of the discovery gateways to the people of Islwyn?

Finally, Cabinet Secretary, I wish to explore in more detail the new local transport hubs that have been mentioned and identified by Welsh Government, which will directly benefit the communities of Islwyn, and as I've stated, my constituency is very enthusiastic for increased and enhanced connectivity between our Valleys, and I would ask that the Cabinet Secretary update us as Members in detail as to how this important work develops as the months proceed. Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. 

I'm certainly happy, Deputy Presiding Officer, to meet individual Members or groups of Members in order to update them on this work as it develops over the coming weeks and months. I'm certainly very, very happy to do that, and I'm also delighted to visit Cwmcarn Forest Drive with the Member. I hope she doesn't mind if I bring my family along with me. We've always enjoyed that part of the world. It's a great place for families to be able to relax and enjoy the fantastic environment and landscape of the Valleys of south Wales. We're very fortunate to represent such places, and I think we should all take great pride in the environment and the landscape of the Valleys, and tell the whole world that the Valleys of south Wales are a very, very special place to be, to see, to visit, to live, to work. 

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary.