Building Back Better in Islwyn

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 6 October 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:29, 6 October 2020

Llywydd, can I thank Rhianon Passmore for that? She is right: the Welsh Government is absolutely open to ideas. In fact, over 2,000 contributions came in to my colleague Jeremy Miles's first invitation to people to give us their thoughts upon how a different sort of Wales could emerge from this coronavirus crisis. We are absolutely committed to continuing that dialogue, and to include in our thinking the many, many ideas that come to us, particularly from people who are working at the front line of our communities—doing the jobs, providing the services, reaching out to other people who are vulnerable in those communities. 

Llywydd, I want to give the Member an absolute assurance that, beyond the health service and the coronavirus crisis, jobs are the very top of the agenda here in the Welsh Government, because we are entering a period in which the economic impact of coronavirus is going to be felt in many families and communities across Wales. As we allow the economy itself to recover, we will act as a Welsh Government, as we have through our economic resilience fund, to make sure that there are opportunities there, particularly for our young people, working alongside the Kickstart programme of the UK Government, to create traineeships and apprenticeships to support employers who are prepared to take on young people as part of their businesses. That will be as true in Islwyn as it will be in any other part of Wales.