Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:27 pm on 28 January 2020.
Thank you, Vikki, for your contributions and questions. The town-centre-first principle—you are right, actually; you can see that, in principle, the sentiment behind it is common sense, really. You can see the difference it makes, including on the site in Colwyn Bay too—the difference that they've seen there. When they created the council buildings, one of the conscious decisions they had was not only to move to a town centre location, but to not have a canteen. And that's not because they were being unnecessarily mean to the staff and to the employees—there's still a facility there to do your meals, and make your tea and coffee and things—but actually to try and encourage that engagement with the local community, to go out and to support local businesses as well, both before and after work. And also actually how the local authority now is perhaps thinking about other services they can bring into that space, to bring more people into the building and into town as well.
And right across the public sector, this has cross-Government support, and that doesn't just mean in terms of our own Government approach, in terms of our locations strategy, moving forward, but actually the work we do perhaps through the various health boards, through education, through local authorities, and the work with housing associations, and other bodies too. So, it's something that—the question, to go through the prism of town-centre-first, should be applied across the piece, moving forward.
And, as you rightly say RCT is a really good example, in terms of bringing properties back into use, and there are projects that have been run by the council as well. I know when I gave evidence to the committee about empty properties that that was cited as a very positive example, which I'd like to see replicated elsewhere. And I think, in terms of actually doing that, there is that money behind them right now, with the enforcement fund and the expertise, to actually make that happen more at pace and scale, right across the country. But also, I think what I'd say to your constituents, in terms of what we want to see there in place, I think it actually goes back to how we better and more involve communities in shaping that agenda too. So, as I said, I invite the Member, if you've got suggestions from your constituents on how best to do that in the future, then they'd be very welcome.