Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 12:53 pm on 1 July 2020.
Okay. Thank you for that response. To much fanfare yesterday, of course, the Prime Minister announced his build back better plan, an investment of £5 billion to be brought forward. Apart from that seeming an almost ridiculously small amount, given the scale of the challenge that we face, not just in Wales, but across the UK, it seems that not a single penny of that investment could be identified as coming to Wales. Now, as well as raising our collective voice, as a nation, to demand that that is changed, I think we have to be prepared also to say, ‘If they won’t do it for us, we’ll do what we can ourselves.’ And we need a rethink, I think, on so many levels: on the scale of investment we need in Wales and how to deliver it and how to prioritise it; on the fiscal flexibility we need; on reforming taxation even. So, is Government ready to begin or join us in that reform discussion right now, because the quicker we start looking for those innovative ways forward, the quicker we’re surely more likely to find them?