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 3:54 pm on 6 October 2020.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:54, 6 October 2020

I thank Darren Millar for that important range of questions, and I welcome his support for the engagement and the focus that the document describes, and the engagement with people in Wales that has very much helped to shape the priorities and the focus that the document describes. He is right to say that older people have been disproportionately affected in many ways in relation to this coronavirus pandemic. We've discussed that very issue with the older people's commissioner, for example, and as the document makes clear, those who've been most adversely affected will benefit from the interventions that the Government is bringing forward. Older people will benefit from the range of interventions, whether it's support for public services, for the third sector and a range of other interventions that are described in the document.

He raises a very, very important point about young people and their employment prospects. I hope he will acknowledge that the document goes to some lengths to emphasise how significant that is as a priority for the Welsh Government, and that is reflected in the range of commitments in the document in terms of supporting young people to enhance their skills training, support them in work, and indeed to support them in apprenticeships. So, there's a range of specific interventions in relation to young people in employment, to add value, I suppose, to some of the interventions that are happening at a UK-wide level, in particular the Kickstart scheme, and to supplement some of that in a way that adds further value to young people, to make sure that they don't carry this burden with them throughout their working lives, which otherwise they might.

Darren Millar raises an important point about the significance of retrofit for the housing stock. I don't want to trespass on the housing Minister's future announcements in this area, but what we have heard in the discussions that we've held is that it's important to be able to act at scale in a way that enables us to stimulate parts of the economy to generate supply of services in this important sector. And that is important, because the set of interventions around energy upgrades and green housing in the document meet a number of policy objectives, obviously around energy efficiency, obviously around fuel poverty, but also a broader range of impacts around economic stimulus and developing a supply chain and a skills supply chain. The assessment that we have made as a Government is that the intervention that is described in the document stands the best chance of meeting that range of objectives.

In relation to town-centre improvement, as he'll see, that is a significant priority. The finance Minister will be making a statement shortly around the level of financial commitment in relation to the policy interventions in this document more broadly. On the point of public transport, he will have noted in the document the significant sums of money that the economy and transport Minister has made available to public transport already, in particular in relation to bus services, precisely for the reason that Darren Millar gives in his statement. He will, I think, also have noted that the document talks about the importance of demand-responsive transport as an option for the future, which I know certainly many older people in my own constituency, and I imagine in his, will welcome as a means of providing flexible transport that otherwise might not be available.

Lastly, in relation to the points he made about the NHS, I'd refer him to the exchanges earlier in the Chamber with the First Minister in relation to that, and also to the winter protection plan that the document refers to. I'm sure my colleague the health Minister will be happy to elaborate on that when he is next in the Chamber.