If I first take the question around the package of the £90 million funding and the timescales of that, well, it has to be broken down, because the £90 million encapsulates quite a few different strands, the bulk of which is the targeted regeneration investment fund, an extension until 2022 of £57.6 million, which will be for local authorities to identify projects in priority towns. It also includes the £5 million green infrastructure fund, and an additional £10 million for the town-centre loans. But it may be better if I provide that breakdown in writing to Members, to be able to analyse that further and to explain the timescales around that for you to disseminate in your constituencies and communities as well.FootnoteLink

The Member would expect me to say this, and I hate to disappoint, but you said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I can assure you that we probably already had this announcement in the pipeline when we did have that debate a few weeks ago. But I'm very pleased where you can find areas of consensus, because we all agree that our towns are so important to us, and to support them as well. I do not disagree in any respect—and I said it in my statement—that it's incredibly important, as we move forward with this regeneration work, and in particular the focus on town centres, that communities are involved with that. Because you can invest money in a town, but to actually make it work in the long term, it has to have that buy-in of stakeholders, whether they be businesses, whether they be members of community groups. So, I'm keen to look at further ways that we can facilitate that, moving forward, and should any Members in this Chamber have any suggestions then I'd be more than happy to receive them.

One of the things we are doing as part of this package is looking in terms of how we can take forward more of a communications approach with communities, to work with them, to actually talk about the support that we're talking about and get their input, and enable a mechanism for people to be able to flag issues and put forward suggestions. And I'm keen to look at how we can involve town and community councils much more in that as well, because, from my experience, they're often the people at the forefront there in the community, seeing what the challenges are and seeking those solutions.

With respect to the UK Government announcement of the £3.6 billion, none of the additional funding that I've announced this week is a result of Barnett consequentials from the UK Government's towns fund. We've not been made aware of any consequential from that, and I would perhaps urge the Member to perhaps go back to his colleagues in Westminster and perhaps lobby on behalf of Wales to ensure that, if there is any consequential, then we should receive it.