Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 3 March 2020.
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.