3. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of economic investment in Ogmore since 2016? OAQ54920

I thank the Member for that. Amongst the many economic investments we've made in Ogmore are Sunday services and new rolling stock on the Maesteg line; growth funding for businesses in Brynmenyn and Pontyclun; supporting 30 apprenticeships at Sony in Pencoed; and the revitalisation of Maesteg town hall with £3.5 million worth of investment. 

I thank the First Minister for that answer, but I'm going to ask him if he could go even further, looking forward. I just wonder whether he and his Ministers in the Cabinet would be open to some ideas that the local authority is working on. So, for example, developing a Bridgend transport hub along with the re-regulation of the buses could actually get the buses to go to the places of work at the time that we need them along the routes that we need them; community and town centre investment in places like Pontycymer and Nantymoel; mixed-use redevelopment of empty sites, such the Ewenny Road strategic site, as well as Sarn and the empty Christie-Tyler site; enterprise hubs in the three valleys delivering jobs closer to home; further development of things such as the Caerau mine water geothermal scheme as well; and also, developing the Bryngarw country park further than it is now, as that gateway for adventure tourism, not only into the Ogmore, but into the Rhondda and the Afan valleys as well. Would he impress that, working with his Ministers together across Government, and would he like to come and visit us, at any time that's convenient to him, so that we can show him the potential of delivering jobs and prosperity for all throughout our communities?

Well, Llywydd, with the repertoire of ideas that we have just heard, it is no wonder, is it, that unemployment in the Ogmore constituency is at an all-time low, where active enterprises in the constituency are at an all-time high, and where the growth in earnings in the Ogmore constituency over the last decade has outstripped the growth, not just in Wales, but across the whole of the United Kingdom? It's fantastic to hear such a wealth of ideas, that we as a Government will want to take up across my ministerial colleagues, and, of course, I would be delighted to come to the constituency and to be with the Member seeing for myself the practical possibilities for even further improvement in the Ogmore economy.

Well, of course, Ogmore is in my region, so perhaps I can piggy-back on the back of that invitation, Huw—thank you. As we've heard before in the Chamber, of course, constituents in Ogmore, as well as other parts of my region, will have worked at Ford and the supply chain companies that have supported Ford. The Welsh Government committed to match fund the Cardiff capital region's £50,000 contribution to a seed fund for Bridgend County Borough Council to invest in initial resources to help develop some proposals to mitigate the impact of those job losses, and some of them may be those that Huw Irranca-Davies has just mentioned. Have you had any indication yet as to whether the council has had the full £100,000 and how much of that has been invested in those priority areas of clean energy and the town centre improvements that we desperately need, in other parts of my region, actually? Is it clear that those are mitigating the impact of the Ford job losses or are they more generally involved in improving the local economy?

I thank Suzy Davies for that, Dirprwy Lywydd. It is true that the Welsh Government has provided £50,000 to Bridgend County Borough Council, to be matched by the city deal. I don't, I'm afraid, have immediately in my head the projects that are being worked up as a result of that investment, but I do know that there is a list of projects that Welsh Government officials and those in the Cardiff capital region have been working on specifically in order to be able to use that investment.

That is part, Dirprwy Lywydd, of a far wider range of actions that the teams that are working on the future of people and places in Bridgend are invested in: the bringing of Ineos to Bridgend, with the potential for jobs there in the future, the investment that the Welsh Government is making to make sure that that is the most attractive proposition that we can make. We are determined to go on working with all our partners, including the UK Government, to make sure that we provide new economic opportunities for people who have lost their jobs at Ford Bridgend, and that Ogmore and the Bridgend constituency, and the whole of the region that the Member represents, goes on enjoying a successful economic future.