Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 11:28 am on 1 July 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 11:28, 1 July 2020

Well, I think I'd say to the Member that very difficult as that news has been overnight, we can point to the way in which, with the UK Government and with the local authority, we were able to respond to the decision of Ford to leave Bridgend, with 1,300 jobs lost there directly, but the way in which the teams we put together, and the structures that we introduced, were very much focused on the supply chains in the automotive industry as well. So, we have some very recent and practical experience of responding to difficulties of this sort.

The key difference between Ford and Airbus is that the Ford decision was a decision to leave Wales altogether, whereas Airbus has a successful future in front of it, provided we can get it through the next difficult months ahead, and that will mean working with supply chains. The summit meeting that I mentioned in my earlier answer is one that will involve the wider economy of north-east Wales and, indeed, the Mersey Dee Alliance, because many people who work at Broughton live in Chester and across our border there, and the impact on supply chains will be felt across that north-east, north-west economy.

So we will work with all those local players, and with the UK Government, in order to make sure that we have a comprehensive picture of the needs, and co-design with people on the ground the sort of help that they will find most useful. We have some off-the-peg things that we do. We've got some tried-and-tested ways in which we mobilise help, but we want to do more than that. We want to make sure that the help we offer will be the help that people locally tell us will be most useful to them. And working with them, and having a summit, will be a way of drawing all that together, to make sure that the help that we are able to offer is calibrated to meet the specific needs and circumstances of that north-east Wales economy.