Communities in Islwyn

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 16 January 2019.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 1:34, 16 January 2019

Thank you. Yes, I'm sure that the OECD team will be keen to learn lessons from the experience in Caerphilly, and specifically in the Islwyn constituency. So, I very much hope that they'd want to meet with the officers there. This will be a two-year project. The first phase is now under way. And I think it's really important that we have external challenge and scrutiny to the approach that we've been taking, so we constantly iterate it. And I'm very keen that we focus on grounded firms and the foundational economy to see if we can make a tangible difference to the way people feel the local economy works for them.

On the Member's point on Brexit, then clearly it's important that the campaigners' promise that Wales will be no worse off as a result of Brexit is kept, and we'll be holding them to make sure that, in the world after regional funds—if it comes to that—we get no less money than we're getting now.