2. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for regeneration of the northern valleys? OAQ55186

Llywydd, the Welsh Government draws together powers and investments across our responsibilities to support the regeneration of places and the creation of opportunities for people across the northern Valleys.

And with that in mind, I'm pleased to say that Caerphilly County Borough Council have produced their Heads of the Valleys regeneration area masterplan, which will tackle challenges of growth and prosperity in the northern Valleys, in areas like Bargoed, Nelson, Senghenydd, and those places that are hard to reach. They make reference in their report to the Cardiff capital region city deal, the south Wales metro, and the Valleys taskforce, all of which must link in. And Caerphilly council have also set aside £24.5 million of reserves for capital projects. All of these things should connect together with Welsh Government policy to ensure that places like Bargoed and Rhymney can be strategic hubs in the future for growth and development, so that people are travelling north to work, and not just south to work. How can the First Minister support that? What dialogue has he had with Caerphilly council with regard to their masterplan, and what future plans will the Welsh Government have to fit in with this ambitious growth that Caerphilly council has?

Llywydd, can I begin by congratulating Caerphilly County Borough Council on the ambition that it has set out in its Valleys regeneration area masterplan? I know there's consultation on that plan going on at present, and that it will be open for the rest of this month. And Welsh Government officials are engaging with officials in Caerphilly council to make sure that, as Hefin David has said, the initiatives that are proposed by the local authority itself are joined with the many initiatives that the Welsh Government has set in motion for the northern Valleys. Hefin David, Llywydd, mentioned transport in particular. He will know that Transport for Wales reduced fares by up to 14 per cent in the northern Valleys, in its price review at the beginning of January, and that is precisely to be able to foster the sorts of ambitions that the local Member for Caerphilly set out, so that more people are able to travel to work where opportunities exist, and people are able to travel from outside those areas to opportunities that exist in those northern valleys—opportunities that we are supporting with the £100 million Tech Valleys programme and through the transforming towns agenda. We discussed it here in the Assembly in recent weeks, our ambition to make sure that those towns across the northern Valleys have the infrastructure they need, the ambition of the sort set out in the Caerphilly council masterplan and then to support that with the actions that the local authority takes and the investment that the Welsh Government is determined to make in those areas. 

First Minister, for my region, obviously the final phase of the Heads of the Valleys road by the Baverstock Hotel is an important piece in the jigsaw to make sure that entire road is dual-carriaged. We know the delays on the eastern side have obviously had an impact on the cost pressures of that particular project. You've identified a new funding model that the Welsh Government are using to fund this last phase. Can you give a commitment that, funding model aside, the projected timelines for construction will be hit this time, and we will not see the delays that we have seen on the eastern part of this particular project? 

Well, Llywydd, the Member is right that the mutual investment model will be used to fund the remaining parts of the Heads of the Valleys road, and it is a very important part of the ambition of this Government for northern Valleys that there is a dual carriageway right along the Heads of the Valleys so that transport becomes one of the enablers of that local economy. The mutual investment model distributes risk in a different way between the funder—the Welsh Government—and the contractor. And the risks of non-completion and of time slippages are much more with the contractor in the mutual investment model and, for those reasons, we can have some confidence that, unless unexpected matters arise during construction, the construction will proceed on time and indeed on budget. 

First Minister, regeneration of the northern Valleys requires more than just economic development and better transport links. We have to regenerate the environment and ensure our Valleys communities are places where people want to live and work. 

First Minister, in light of the comments by the Royal Meteorological Society that the damage caused by storm Dennis is a taste of things to come as the south Wales Valleys are set to see 50 per cent more rain over the next 10 years, we have to ensure our Valleys communities are more resilient. First Minister, what is the Welsh Government doing to increase resilience? And what discussions have you had with the UK Government and the Coal Authority about the state of the coalfields? 

Well, I thank the Member for that important question, Llywydd. I'm happy to report, following questions last week, that a further meeting between officials of Natural Resources Wales, the local authority and the Coal Authority have happened since the meeting I chaired with the Secretary of State. We are both expecting a report by the end of this week, which will provide the additional information that we were looking for in that meeting, will provide some assurance, I hope, about the current state of safety in coal tips, but will go beyond that, in the way the Member has suggested, to provide at least an initial assessment of what needs to be done to make sure that those sites are safe for the future. And if we are to see a different level of rainfall and a different intensity of weather events, then the standards against which safety has been judged in the last decade may not be sufficient for the decade to come. And the report that we will see—it will be an initial report by the end of this week—will begin to give us some advice on that matter and that will be part of a longer term review of a whole series of issues arising from the events across Wales in the last two or three weeks, which we will be leading through the Welsh Government to make sure that our physical infrastructure is resilient for the future and we're doing everything we can to protect those communities.