8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The Economy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:10 pm on 22 May 2019.

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Photo of David Melding David Melding Conservative 5:10, 22 May 2019

Well, it's clearly work in progress, and issues about shared governance require real thought, because they need to be rigorous and really like nothing we've really had before in our internal structure and in terms of how the various Governments in the union operate. So, I'd urge you to be patient, but I don't dismiss the importance of the issue.

Suzy said we need to be bolder and braver. I thought that was a good description, really, of a lot of people's contributions—that was definitely to be heard—and that failure should not put people off trying again when it comes to the economy. I mean, this obviously has been taken up with enthusiasm by the Welsh Government in preparing their latest economic action plan, and we hope that it is most successful. Suzy said that economic growth requires Welsh Government and the UK to work more effectively in partnership, and the Minister fairly did point out that the biggest economic levers clearly are with the UK Government, but there is a need for partnership working for the benefit of the people of Wales.

Mike Hedges, as usual, made an excellent contribution in which he combined firm left-wing socialism with a real desire to see the market economy work more effectively and the skills that we need to have flowing through the economy being emphasised and being driven up, so that we get more of those higher paid professional and managerial jobs. And then he talked with great vigour, I thought, about the creative industries, especially animation and a list of cartoon characters, which I thought the Deputy Minister showed particular interest in at that point.

Mark then took us back to the choices that are inevitably faced on economic matters, and you know, there's a blue team and there's a red team, and it's fair that we reflect on the various interpretations of economic data that we have, but there are some big figures there about the UK economy's performance, and our economy is not performing as well—and it's an issue for us all. I'm not attributing blame; I've already said that we need to work in partnership. But low productivity is a real issue and it's something that we need to be aware of.

Mohammad talked about the skills gap, and again I think that's probably the biggest reason we have lower productivity than we would desire, and emphasised the real need to look at digital skills as being key to higher earnings for people. 

Huw Irranca was very much in the red corner. I mean, Deputy Presiding Officer, he ended in the red zone, but I think he started in the red zone as well. I did agree with him that after 20 years it is now about delivery. Well, it should have been about delivery all along, but at least we are getting to that point when even the Members that support the Government are keen to see more delivery. And he made a really good point that the micro and small business sector in the Valleys can be a key economic generator.

David Rowlands. I mean, I don't agree with him either in terms of 'Public sector bad; private sector good,' but we do need a rebalance in the economy, and we need a larger private sector, so there I certainly do agree with you.

And then the Minister wound up by reflecting on some of the achievements, and that was a fair point. We don't want to be overly gloomy ourselves when we're trying to heighten the ambition of the people of Wales and make us more attractive as a location for investment, but I mean, with the positive messages, around higher economic activity and generally, we are more skilled than we were 20 years ago and employment is higher. These are genuine achievements and the Welsh Government has been part of that, without any doubt. But you know, the challenges that are there do remain, as Mark indicated, and they're deep-seated in our economy. We need more innovation. We need more risk taking, and we need to face up to some big decisions, now that we have taxation power, in how we're going to generate the sort of economy that the skills and abilities of the people of Wales deserve. But I thank every Member for what was in general a well-spirited debate.