The 'Our Future Wales' Consultation

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European Transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 3:10 pm on 7 October 2020.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:10, 7 October 2020

I do think the point the Member makes is very important, because whilst the overall effect of COVID on our lives is obviously very detrimental, we have learnt to do things differently in some ways in the last few months, and we will want to hold onto those ways where they're better ways of proceeding.

So, in the economy, for example, we have seen, despite the overwhelming impact on businesses in Wales, that there have been opportunities for some businesses to look at different product lines in terms of personal protective equipment and so on and supplies to the NHS. And there's been a level of innovation in relation to that that has been positive for those businesses, and we want, obviously, to be able to encourage that. In relation to the way we've approached public services working together, delivering some of their services increasingly online—we've seen that in the health service; we've seen that in local government—that won't work for everybody but it'll work for a lot of people and it will allow reconfiguration of some of those services to deliver ever better services to people in Wales.

We've also seen—and he acknowledges this in his question—a renewed enthusiasm across the public, I would say, for making sure this is a green response to COVID. I know he will welcome the investment that's already been made in terms of active travel and in terms of renewables and in terms of similar interventions, and the document we published yesterday I think very hopefully describes an optimistic way of taking forward that agenda in relation to decarbonising our economy, supporting biodiversity, improving air quality, and also, at the same time, many of those interventions also help stimulate the economy, also help to create skills pipelines and provide a number of other benefits.

So, part of the message I wanted to make sure was conveyed yesterday was that some of the responses that the Government have necessarily are to mitigate the damage that COVID will have caused in the long term, but some of it is to identify those points of positivity that he suggests and to try and build on those.