3. What strategy will the Welsh Government follow to support the economy in Wales? OAQ54634

I thank John Griffiths for that question, Llywydd. Our strategy for the Welsh economy focuses on inclusive growth and fair work. Public investment in people and places supports these strategic purposes.

First Minister, Newport is very well placed to help Welsh Government realise its ambitions in terms of sustainable development. It could play a much bigger part, I believe, in economic growth, job creation, together with the sort of environmental protections that we want to see in our country—sustainable development in the round. It's geographic location between our capital city and Bristol I believe gives it great advantages, and it has very good transport and communication links, together with resourceful people and strong communities.

So, would you, then, First Minister, join me in welcoming the proposed approach in the national development framework to put Newport at the forefront of that sort of development in south-east Wales and help it realise its potential, and in doing so, the potential of Wales as a whole?

Llywydd, can I thank John Griffiths for drawing attention to the national development framework? It is still out for consultation. Members have until 15 November in order to provide comments on it, and I look forward to reading the many comments that have already been sent in on the framework. It does, as John Griffiths says, identify Newport as somewhere that has an increased strategic role in the region in the future. There are many good reasons why that should be the case, as John Griffiths, as you would expect, has identified.

Newport, already a city where the employment rate is above the Welsh average, somewhere where the unemployment rate has fallen faster than in other parts of Wales, where there are now 11,475 active enterprises—the highest since records ever began—that is why the national development framework identifies the city as somewhere where sustainable development in housing, in essential services, in digital infrastructure, can be developed in the future. And we look forward to working with the city council and other important players in the locality to achieve the ambition that the national development framework sets out for the city of Newport.

First Minister, you'll no doubt agree with me that having a thriving Cardiff Airport is essential for the south Wales economy. Now, the loans given to the airport has now increased to more than £50 million, nearly as much as it cost to buy the airport back in 2013, and the losses made to the airport continue to grow. Your predecessor said, First Minister, that it was always the Welsh Government's intention to return the airport to the private sector. You recently confirmed that this isn't your position. If I've got that wrong, then my question is to ask for clarification. Is it now the intention of the Welsh Government to run the airport for the long term, or are you still actively exploring the business models to get the airport into a position to turn it into the private sector? And if you have taken a different position to your predecessor, can you explain why that is the case?

Llywydd, I welcome the Member's conversion to support Cardiff Airport and welcome the things that he has said about the way in which the airport is now thriving under public ownership—very far from the case when it was under its—. I think the Member referred to the 'thriving' nature—I wrote it down—to the 'thriving' nature of Cardiff Airport, an airport that, as he well knows, is under public ownership. So, I welcome his conversion to both of those causes.

There will be a long-term public interest in this airport because Wales needs an airport as a long-term investment in the future of our economy. As the airport goes on thriving and goes on growing, of course we will want to make sure that the way in which it is run and the way in which it is organised reflects its new success.

The First Minister probably knows that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have calculated that Wales contributes approximately £5,800 per head in tax, and Her Majesty's Treasury calculates that public expenditure, at all levels in Wales, amounts to about £10,300 per head. And so that, in effect, is a massive subsidy, largely by the taxpayers of London and the south-east. Therefore, the future of the British economy is vitally important to economic prosperity in Wales. But there has been no desire on the part of either Labour or Conservative Governments in the last 20 years to adjust the Barnett formula, which produces significant injustice for people in Wales, because it's not based on actual needs. And in view of this, does he think that the devolution process has actually produced this unintended consequence that Wales is now largely forgotten by parties at Westminster because the powers that this Assembly has can be exercised here, but they have to be paid for, to a great extent, by taxpayers in England? So, it's a case of out of sight, out of mind, and therefore perhaps the devolution process has not been quite so beneficial to Wales as we might have thought.

What a contorted line of argument, Llywydd. Let me start: the Member was correct in what he said at the beginning—that those HMRC figures show that £12 billion more is spent on public services in Wales than is raised in Wales. That's £4,000 for every family in Wales. Where I don't think he is right is in saying that these things are not thought about or considered.

Let me, for a moment, pay tribute to David Gauke, then the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, now the discarded Conservative member, who negotiated the fiscal framework with the Welsh Government that provides a 105 per cent multiplier for any expenditure that comes through for English purposes until such time as the floor that Gerry Holtham talked about in his report has been achieved. So, I think a lot of work went on early in this Assembly term to look at those financial arrangements. We said at the time—we say it again now—that, while that was welcome progress, what is really needed is a fundamental reform of the way that financial arrangements happen around the UK so that there is a needs basis to it, and Barnett has no basis in need at all.