4. Statement by the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition: COVID-19 Reconstruction — Challenges and Priorities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:48 pm on 6 October 2020.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 3:48, 6 October 2020

Thank you, Minister, for a copy of your statement in advance of this afternoon's session. I welcome the publication of the 'COVID-19 Reconstruction: Challenges and Priorities' report. I think there's a great deal to be said about the level of engagement that the Welsh Government has undertaken in order to produce that document, and I welcome a great deal of the focus that the Welsh Government has identified in terms of things that it would like to achieve going forward. But that said, I do think that there are things that I would like to ask you some questions about.

I notice that you refer to the need to ensure that we focus our efforts in Wales on supporting those who have been most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. You listed all sorts of individuals—children, young people, women, those in low-paid and insecure employment, BAME people and disabled people—but the one group that you didn't mention was older people, and, of course, we all know that the impact of the pandemic on older people has, unfortunately, been much more severe than on other groups in society. Can you tell me is there a reason why older people feature very little—not at all in your statement and very, very little in the document that has been published today?

You've also said that you want to ensure that people's jobs are protected where possible, and that young people in particular can get into employment, and I would echo very much those comments. But there is a growing concern across Wales that some of the restrictions that the Welsh Government is putting in place are disproportionate to the levels of risk in people's communities. Do you accept that there is a risk that more young people in Wales will be out of employment as a result of some of the measures that the Welsh Government has taken and that it's very difficult, actually, for members of the public to determine whether the action taken to date is proportionate, because of the lack of granular data at a community-by-community level that is available and published in the public domain by Public Health Wales and othe

Can I also ask about access to improvements in terms of our housing stock? I obviously understand why the Welsh Government has a focus on trying to improve the social housing stock. It's easy to motivate registered social landlords with grants in order to take action to retrofit those properties, but we obviously also need to encourage people who own their own homes to take action to improve their properties too. The UK Government, of course, has its green homes grant scheme, which is very generous, and many people are taking the opportunity to take advantage of that at present, but we don't have an equivalent scheme here in Wales. Will the Welsh Government reconsider its position on that and whether there is a way that you can promote people investing in their own homes and properties by enticing them with a contribution from the Government's coffers in the way that the green homes grant does in England?

Can I also raise concerns with you about the level of investment that the Welsh Government is putting into town centre improvement? You'll be aware that the Welsh Conservatives have called for a £250 million COVID recovery fund, which is, obviously, a significantly greater investment than the cash that has been made available by the Welsh Government for town centres to date. Can you give us an indication of the scale of investment in town centres going forward as a result of your plan?

And finally—oh, I've got a little bit more time than I thought. If I can also, then, just touch on public transport. I note that you are encouraging people to change their working patterns. That will obviously reduce demand for public transport significantly in some parts of Wales. Quite why you've chosen a 30 per cent target of the workforce working from home is beyond me; I'm not quite sure why you've decided to pluck that figure from the air or where the evidence base for that is. But that's the target that you have set. Clearly, if more people are working from home, there will be less demand for public transport, which will make many routes less viable. Now, you've talked about trying to spread the demand for public transport across the day. I can understand that on those busy routes where we've got some overcrowding, particularly on our train services, but what will this mean in terms of bus routes? I'm very concerned, because older people, obviously, are disproportionately greater users of bus services, particularly in rural parts of Wales where they have no alternative transport and may not have a car. So, what work are you doing to identify those critical routes that older people in particular rely on in those sorts of communities?

You mentioned also the national health service needing to make up lost ground in terms of treatment of non-coronavirus-related conditions, yet I haven't seen a single solution in the document as to how you're going to deal with the backlog of appointments. Again, it's older people who are disproportionately—