Co-operative Principles

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 7 May 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:06, 7 May 2019

Well, Llywydd, can I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for what he said today and the work that I know he does all the time to promote the co-operative movement, to speak up for the principles of co-operation and of partnership? He's absolutely right to point to the number of Welsh Co-operative Party Assembly Members here in the Chamber. I was very pleased to ask the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport to particularly focus on the work that is being done on the co-operative economy. I'd be very pleased to meet the Member and others who have an interest in this, because on so many of the things that he mentioned in his supplementary question, there is work that we are determined to do here in Wales.

The £25 million Welsh management succession fund that has been set up by my colleague Ken Skates, through the Development Bank of Wales, is an absolutely practical example of the way in which we want employee ownership to grow here in Wales. We've recently supported a larger-scale programme for community-led housing, in conjunction with the Nationwide federation, to develop co-operative housing here in Wales, and the prospect of a community bank, I think, is one of the most exciting prospects that we have here in Wales. We know that there are whole communities where conventional banking no longer operates on the high street and in those communities, and we have an opportunity here in Wales, working with others, to develop a different sort of model that will return banking to the core of those communities, that will offer a service to small businesses—microbusinesses in particular—and doing it on the basis of those collaborative principles that the co-operative movement exemplifies.