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 4:27 pm on 6 October 2020.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 4:27, 6 October 2020

Thank you very much indeed. Minister, could I commend the engagement you've done on this, but also the radicalism that is shot through this report and the statement as well? That's because, as I prompted you right at the outset of this, you didn't go to the usual suspects, and, of course, we work within the welcome ambition of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 as well.

Let me just ask you a couple of questions here. One is: in terms of public transport, do we use this opportunity now to seize back control, particularly in terms of buses within our Valleys, and make the money that we put into this go further? In terms of town-centre development, can we be clear that it's not only the core town centres, it's actually the Pontycymers as well as the Porthcawls, the Glynneaths as well as the Neaths—it's all those town centres, including in the uppermost reaches of our Valleys.

Just finally, on low carbon housing, I welcome the focus, obviously, on social housing, but that's not the be-all and end-all, as the report makes clear. We should come up with our own version of how we do at-scale development of retrofitting with private homeowners as well. Will that be part of the way forward? Thank you very much.