9. Will the Minister make a statement on the role of the foundational economy in helping to tackle poverty in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney? OAQ53607

Yes. The foundational economy has an important role to play in our wider approach to economic development. 

Thank you for that answer, Minister. As you know, we still face significant economic challenges in our Valleys communities and the problems caused by poverty remain persistently stubborn in parts of my constituency. While I was interested in the answer that you gave earlier to Hefin David on the foundational economy, I'm interested to know specifically how this might help to deliver the step change in the economic conditions for areas particularly like the upper Rhymney valley, which has been stubbornly resistant to any kind of economic upturn. I'm thinking, for example, of the Welsh Government's work with Caerphilly County Borough Council, where we're investing in the transformation of care in the upper Rhymney valley, and whether you're involved in that work and whether you see that as part of the whole foundational economy transformation that we can look at in those Valleys communities. 

Thank you. I have been careful to avoid terms like 'transformation' and 'step change' in relation to the foundational economy. I think the foundational economy will help. It will make things better. It'll keep money—existing money—within those communities and stop it leaking out. And it'll allow us to harness the power of public spending in particular to improve the fabric of those communities and the lived experience there. We should be under no illusions about the type of intractable economic problems we face in those valleys, and no single intervention will make a step change in my view. So, I think we should be moderate in the rhetoric we use around that, but I think it can make a real difference.

And what's good about it is we have the powers to do it. It's within the tools we have at our disposal to do this work, and that's why we need to get on and do it. Also, it's important we stitch together existing initiatives. So, we have the Valleys taskforce, and I'm very pleased that Dawn Bowden has accepted my invitation to join the Valleys taskforce to input into its work. We also have the Better Jobs Closer to Home project, and we now have the work going on under the foundational economy—the three different strands that I mentioned—including growing grounded businesses. This is not just a public sector agenda; it's about growing responsible and rooted local firms too. And through bringing all those different strands together—. I had a meeting with officials this morning about how we co-ordinate that work within the Welsh Government to make sure we are joined up, and to do it in partnership with local authorities.

I'm meeting, as part of the Valleys taskforce work, with each of the local authority leaders and I want to use the Valleys taskforce to try and identify existing good practice and scale it up. We say often that best practice is a poor traveller in Wales. This is an opportunity to identify good practice. For example, in RCT, they've themselves been working on bringing abandoned homes back into use, and that's potentially a project we could scale across the Valleys using this approach, and, in doing so in a smart way, utilise local labour, local SMEs—we could potentially look at retrofitting to improve environmental standards and skills as we do it. So, I think this is an exciting agenda and it can make a real impact to our communities.

And, finally, question 10—Helen Mary Jones.