So, we reconvene then on item 4, which is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: update on the Valleys taskforce, and I call on the Deputy Minister for the Economy and Transport, Lee Waters.

Thank you. My first initiative on becoming the chair of the Valleys taskforce two years ago was to look across the Valleys for existing good practice to share. There was understandable scepticism when the taskforce was first set up in 2016, that people had seen initiatives to transform the Valleys come and go. There was no appetite for more well-meaning initiatives from outsiders, and great efforts were made for this initiative to be different. Building on the extensive programme of open meetings and consultation that my colleague Alun Davies and other Ministers undertook, I met with every local authority leader in the taskforce area to ask them to identify successful initiatives that had originated in their areas that we could spread across neighbouring authorities.

Rhondda Cynon Taf had successfully developed a scheme to tackle the blight of empty properties. The taskforce decided to scale it across the Valleys. We set aside £10 million for people with houses that had been empty for more than six months to apply for a grant to bring them back into use as homes. We also decided to add to the original project by making an extra grant available for energy-saving measures.

We co-designed a scheme that tackled blight, a lack of affordable homes, and helped achieve decarbonisation, and we did so in a way that supported the foundational economy, with small local building firms benefiting from the regeneration spend that this project has unleashed. So far, over 500 applications have been received. Inevitably, the pandemic has caused delays but I am pleased that the Valleys' local authorities are committed to making this scheme a success—a scheme designed and delivered in the Valleys, and one that offers an example for the rest of Wales.

The pandemic has shown the well-being-critical role everyday services and key workers play. And a broader commitment to support the foundations of the Valleys economy has been at the heart of the taskforce’s approach. Last year, I launched a foundational economy challenge fund trial project to test different approaches. Of the 52 experimental projects, 27 are in the Valleys. Through these projects, we are committed to experiment and to learn from different interventions to nurture local communities and change their relationship to their local economy. This is critical to build resilience to the disruption from external shocks we're seeing, like COVID, Brexit, automation and climate change.

Key to this is to stop wealth leaking out of the area. I’m pleased that the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, which did important work with Preston City Council to test the concept, is now working with every large public body in the Valleys to maximise the power of the public pound. They are all now working though their contracts to understand where they can redirect spending to shore up the local economy. This focused work in the Valleys will also inform work in the rest of Wales.

The same is true of some of our business initiatives. The Valleys taskforce piloted a peer-to-peer mutual support network for local business founders to tackle common problems. We're now extending it, and Business Wales are considering how it can be incorporated into business support initiatives across Wales.

We have also piloted the access employability programme to provide employability skills and personal development to people who have become unemployed. It, too, has proven a great success and is now being expanded across Wales as part of the ReAct programme.

We have spread good practice through the Valleys Regional Park project. We adapted our original plan to have park rangers to follow Bridgend County Borough Council's example of community guardians. We now have a network of Valleys Regional Park guardians who are at work in each of the discovery sites that act as a gateway to our green spaces. They not only keep an eye on the parks but link in to social prescribing and community enterprise initiatives, too. At Bryngarw Country Park, where we have funded a new education centre, the guardians are developing nature experience programmes for the home-schooling community. Connecting communities with local nature in this way is key to meeting the challenges of climate change. Funding for the management of the regional park is now in place until 2023. And to help support the long-term management of the landscape, we’ve put the governance of the parks under the city region structure.

Another exciting project that could lift the Valleys Regional Park is the Crucible project in Merthyr. To help seed it, we have contributed £80,000 to an archival study to help create the blueprint for this landmark project.

I'm also pleased to announce that Llyn Llech Owain in the Gwendraeth valley and the Afan forest in Neath Port Talbot have been awarded funding for improvements to become discovery gateway sites. In addition, Llyn Llech Owain and Parc Bryn Bach in Blaenau Gwent will become remote working hubs. Instead of a long commute, people can work from a modern office set in their local park, and take a break in nature in their lunch hour. We are funding complementary remote working projects in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Caerphilly, which will test the concept in smaller town centres, too. These, too, will inform our work to encourage 30 per cent of people to work remotely.

On top of this, we’ve invited smaller towns and villages to bid into a £3 million taskforce fund to help them to recover from the impact of COVID-19. The funding will cover physical improvements as well as digital. This will include a network of LoRaWAN gateways to support the development of 'the internet of things' innovations. In this case, bringing to the Valleys innovations in the use of footfall data from Cardigan and from north-west Wales, because best practice ought to travel both ways.

In transport we’ve innovated, too, and this was one of the areas frequently raised at our numerous public engagement events, the need for regular, reliable public transport. The on-demand local bus service, Fflecsi, which is now being piloted across Wales, came from Valleys taskforce discussions. And we have further announcements to make in the coming weeks. Again, these are all initiatives from the Valleys for the Valleys, but with the potential to be applied all over Wales. Dirprwy Lywydd, nobody is denying that the south Wales Valleys continue to face many challenges, but the taskforce has shown at least that the solutions to their problems lie within.

I thank the Deputy Minister for his statement today and broadly welcome it. The Valleys taskforce was established in 2016 to focus resources on disadvantaged communities in south Wales Valleys, which, of course, is very welcome. These communities have faced economic and social issues that have detrimentally impacted on their well-being. Sadly, the work of the Valleys taskforce has been significantly hampered by the coronavirus outbreak. In June, Deputy Minister, you confirmed that a number of projects have been paused due to health and safety concerns and capacity constraints. You also asked officials to undertake a review of each of the seven priorities of the current Valleys taskforce programme. In view of this, could you outline the future of the Valleys taskforce during the remainder of the programme, and what projects will be prioritised or scrapped to provide certainty to stakeholders and the communities?

Despite its good intentions, the Valleys taskforce has not delivered the transformative change that the south Wales Valleys needed to improve the prosperity of local communities. In written evidence to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, the Bevan Foundation state that they have continued to have concerns about the strategy, scale and impact of the taskforce. The Bevan Foundation note that the taskforce itself has helped to direct focus on the socioeconomic issues facing the communities in the Valleys. However, they are also critical of the Welsh Labour Government's lack of leadership and direction in setting up and resourcing the taskforce.

They also criticise the Welsh Labour-led Government's target to get 7,000 people into work by 2021, which pales in comparison to the 67,000 jobs that are estimated to be required to meet the jobs need of the area. The most recent statistics show that 4,500 people have been supported into work through community employment programmes since July 2017. However, this progress is likely to have been offset by job losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you react, Deputy Minister, to the evidence provided by stakeholders that the Valleys taskforce has been limited by a lack of ambition from the Welsh Labour Government, and that a somewhat inconsistent approach to a socioeconomic regeneration has resulted in resources and investment being spread out too thinly across the region?

The number of empty properties in the Valleys region is still high. Recent estimates show that there are 994 empty properties in Blaenau Gwent, equivalent to 3 per cent of the total number of dwellings in the area; 2,212 empty properties in Rhondda Cynon Taff, equivalent to 2 per cent of the total number of dwellings; and 520 empty properties in Merthyr Tydfil, equivalent to 1.9 per cent of the total dwellings in the area.

The Welsh index of multiple deprivation in 2019 found that towns in south Wales Valleys are more likely to experience higher income deprivation and health deprivation than other parts of Wales. I know you've introduced an empty homes grant to tackle the issue of empty and derelict homes in the Valleys region, but this scheme will end in February 2021. The Welsh Valleys need urgent tailored investment and support to help communities to build back better. Will the Deputy Minister outline how the Welsh Labour Government will use its unallocated resources as part of the extra £5 billion of extra funding provided by the UK Conservative Government to help the Valleys recover post pandemic? Thank you.

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, I think, for too long, the debate around the Valleys has been a bit of a Punch and Judy show, with people rightly pointing out the impact the deindustrialisation has caused and the impact that the Thatcher Government has had, and I've always been reluctant to go there, but that contribution really did take the biscuit, I must say. For Laura Anne Jones to point to a 67,000 jobs gap in the Valleys and blame the Welsh Government for it, I think really is stretching credibility beyond its limits. And the so-called £5 billion that Laura Anne Jones has pointed to that the UK Government has so generously given us barely covers the cost of the NHS uplift and leaves our public finances in a very real stretched position; not least, we're not getting the proper Barnett share for rail schemes and for HS2, which, if we had them, then we could spread further investment into the Valleys. So, I find these sort of glib observations really unhelpful, given the scale of the challenge before us. So, I shall not go any further into that particular Punch and Judy show, but there's plenty of script there if I wanted to.

To turn to some of her more sensible points, in terms of how do we make the empty property programme self-sustaining, given, as she rightly said, the scale of the challenge in the Valleys—Rhondda Cynon Taf, for example, has the second highest level of empty homes in all of the UK—I think one of the clever things about the scheme that Councillor Andrew Morgan and his colleagues developed in Rhondda Cynon Taf was that this would be self-sustaining. We've made sure, as we've designed this with the authorities, that they've put investment on the table to match ours, that, following the RCT example, they've been requested to increase council tax on empty homes, so they're generating some revenue that can then fuel the next round of grants that can go out. And of course, these are grants that are repayable should people sell their properties or move within five years. So, what we hope is that, by getting local authorities to co-operate like this and to collaborate, we will open their eyes to the possibility of what RCT has done and spread that, and that they will then put their own resources into it and see the benefit to their own communities. After all, RCT started this because they found a problem with public health officials being called to rats at houses. So, there was a problem they had to deal with, and they came up with an innovative solution, which we have scaled.

I don't accept the critique that there's a lack of ambition behind the project. It was never going to be possible to reverse generations of challenging economic circumstances in such a short period, but what I hope my statement has shown is that, through trial and different place-based approaches, collaboratively with local authorities—so, it's not people coming in with solutions; it's coming up with solutions together—we will kick start a regeneration that will have a dynamic beyond the time of the taskforce.

Diolch. The Rhondda, my constituency, my home, is a place that has struggled for decades. Now, much as many people might like to, we cannot get away from the fact that since the start of the various pit closure programmes, but especially since Margaret Thatcher's attack on our communities in the 1980s, with no plan to replace those lost jobs, life has been a big struggle for many people, and the problems facing people are of course mainly economic.

We are not unique. Most of our former industrial areas have struggled for generations, but the Rhondda is in a particularly precarious situation. In a study of towns in Wales and England most vulnerable to the economic effects of COVID-19, two from the Rhondda were named in the top 20. This, of course, comes on top of devastating floods. The Rhondda could really do with some help right now, but, sadly, little has been forthcoming from the Valleys taskforce. Yes, we have the Skyline project, which is pioneered by the amazing people at Welcome To Our Woods, and, yes, there are good works going on in terms of empty homes. But this isn't enough. We need more job creation.

Take the classic example of the co-operative made up of former Burberry workers, which tried to get off the ground in the last two years. There's been a lot of talk, but, to date, there has been little concrete support, no contracts, and no financial assistance for this group. The Burberry co-operative represents an opportunity to take advantage of world-class clothing manufacturing skills that still exist within our community following Burberry's departure from Treorchy 13 years ago. It could have been an iconic and great success story—yet nothing. In the taskforce's original delivery plan, there are three overriding priorities: good quality jobs and the skills to do them, better public services and community. The example of the Burberry workers in the Rhondda—that co-operative would fit perfectly well with the first priority, and it would meet the other two as well. So many well-spun initiatives we've seen, but how long is it going to be before there's any real addressing of the socioeconomic problems that plague our communities?

Now, I've asked this question many times but I've yet to get a substantive answer, so I will ask it again: how has the Rhondda benefited, in terms of job creation, over and above other constituencies as a result of the work of the Valleys taskforce? What measurable economic progress can you show in my constituency as a result of the Valleys taskforce? I and many other people want initiatives like the Valleys taskforce to deliver what they promise to communities like mine in the Rhondda but, so far, progress has been disappointing to say the least. 

I'm disappointed but not surprised by that contribution. I think the claim that the Rhondda should benefit over and above the Valleys taskforce areas goes to the heart of the problem with the contribution. It's constantly looking for grievance to seize upon and to exploit, rather than looking in the spirit of co-operation as to how all the authorities can work together.

Leanne Wood again mentioned the example of the Treorchy Burberry co-operative, and I have met with them and explained to her at length the process that we went through, working with that co-operative, and working with the trustees, to offer them help to win contracts by themselves. Now, there is a responsibility on both parties to co-operate here, and I know she's disappointed that the co-operative that we set up in Ebbw Vale didn't come to the Rhondda, but, as I say, these projects need to go to different places based on evidence, and the evidence analysis that we carried out for the criteria of that project and having a location that was suitable, close to public transport, close to people who had been out of work for a long time, favoured Ebbw Vale in this particular instance.

Leanne Wood seems unable to move beyond that, even though, as I've said, we remain open to working with the co-operative. We have reached out repeatedly to the co-operative. We set up the foundational economy challenge fund, which they could have bid into. So, I'm not sure what else she expects us to do, short of give them a large contract, which we simply just can't be doing. But we remain happy to work with them, because their objectives are my objectives. Their objectives are the objectives of the foundational economy, of social business and social enterprise, which we champion. But it's a shame—she keeps going on about this example when I've explained to her the limitations of that approach, but, again, I sincerely say we remain open to working with them to see if we can find a way through. 

She asked again what the Rhondda had benefited, and my speech set out a series of initiatives that the Rhondda had benefited from, alongside other parts of the Valleys. Again, the empty homes project, which is specifically in the Rhondda, has benefited considerably from the Valleys taskforce budget, and that helps all parts of the Valleys. 

Specifically on the co-working space pilots, we are funding £300,000 to Rhondda Cynon Taf council for the development of the Llwynypia court house and for the development of co-working space in Rhondda Housing Association. The court house redevelopment project has a great deal to recommend it, building on the former magistrates' court into a multi-purpose structure, which would have a cafe, a fully-equipped gym, as well as a place where people can work so they can benefit their local town centre, rather than going further afield.  

I'd like to thank the Minister for the statement this afternoon, but I also want to congratulate him on the work he's done since taking over responsibility for this portfolio and as chair of the Valleys taskforce. It's always difficult for a former Minister, of course, to ask questions of his replacement in Government, and I accept that, but I want to make the point of congratulating him on the work he's done over these last two years; I think it's testament to a real, deep commitment and vision. The work that he did particularly in ensuring a supply chain for personal protective equipment over the last year is testament to a values-based approach to politics that Members on all sides of this Chamber would do well to reflect upon, and, certainly, the work in supporting the co-operative in Ebbw Vale is something that is greatly appreciated, not only in the town but in the hospitals and care homes of Wales as well. 

I'd like to ask the Minister if he will, before dissolution, ensure that we are able to see the bookend, if you like, of this piece of work—that the targets and objectives that I published as a Minister at the time are reflected upon. The Conservative Member for south-east Wales was wrong in her assumptions about those targets and objectives—they were actually built upon a very long and in-depth consversation with a number of different organisations within the Valleys, and those targets and objectives were set together. They weren't imposed upon the Valleys, they came from the Valleys, and I think that's a really important point that was lost there. But it is important for the trust in Government that we're able to say, 'We said we'd do this, and this is what we delivered.'

The other issue I'd like to raise—

Very briefly, then, because you're out of time.

—that I'd like to just raise, quickly, with the Minister, is our Tech Valleys. This is a £100 million investment in Blaenau Gwent that was announced by myself as a Minister and also the Minister for economy and enterprise. It is important that we're able to deliver on that commitment. It was a solid commitment, given to the people of Blaenau Gwent at an extraordinarily difficult time. The people of Blaenau Gwent, I think, have an absolute right to ensure and to expect this Government to deliver on that promise. Thank you.

Thank you for the generous comments. I, of course, will be addressing his point about how we've met the targets, and I'm confident that we will have done that, despite the most challenging of circumstances. On the Tech Valleys, this is a subject we have addressed in this Chamber before. I'm confident that we will have—. Obviously, it is a 10-year project, but we will have, by the end of this Senedd term, the beginnings in Ebbw Vale of a tech cluster. We are investing significantly in property, because that was one of the things that the local authority and the Tech Valleys board have identified as a real issue in the Heads of the Valleys area. So, we are investing in new property and in rejuvenating existing property to create an offer. We have created, with the location of Thales on the former steelworks site, a cyber capacity. I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to get 5G on the site. We're working very hard on that and have had significant advances, but we're not quite over the line on that yet. But, once we have those things in place, I think then there's a genuine tech offering in Ebbw Vale that makes Ebbw Vale and the surrounding area stand out, and I think can begin to repay the promise and the potential that we offered with the announcement of that project. But I would also say to Alun Davies that we want to look beyond Ebbw Vale to the whole Heads of the Valleys area, recognising that this is an economic ecosystem. We are doing work, particularly, in supporting existing firms, rather than just trying to attract new firms in. We've done a piece of work to improve the productivity and resilience of grounded firms in the area, and I think there's a lot more we can do in that.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the Deputy Minister charged with the task of reinvigorating the former mining communities of the south Wales Valleys is a truly committed individual, with a real desire to succeed where others have patently failed. My worry is the sheer number of organisations and bodies tasked with instigating and developing the programmes of the Valleys taskforce. First, we have, of course, the Welsh Government itself, then local authorities and their LEAs. We then have the Cardiff capital region and the Swansea bay city deals—not to mention the Blaenau Gwent enterprise zone, the Valleys regional park project, and the Taff Vale scheme. To this we can add local health boards, public services boards, Transport for Wales, and, last but not least, we have the third sector bodies, together with a large number of private sector partners. One has to ask the question: how are these disparate bodies going to combine to produce the desired outcomes? Given that the desired outcome is to create at least 7,000 skilled new jobs across the Valleys region, how are we going to monitor whether these are truly new, productive jobs, as opposed to administrative jobs? I remember the figures for the Merthyr Tydfil Communities First project. Out of the £1.5 million allocated, £1.25 million went on just that—administrative jobs. Will the Deputy Minister outline what measures he is putting in place to make sure this does not happen to this comprehensive project? If we look very briefly at some details—

Can you bring your comments to a close, please? You're out of time.

I will indeed. Okay, sorry. Deputy Minister, there's no doubt that the plans and projects outlined in the report are ambitious and desirable, but if we are to assuage the growing discontent, not just with the Welsh Government but with the Senedd institution as a whole, these grand designs—for that is what they are—cannot fail. They have to deliver, or, dare we say, more than deliver, on their objectives. The people of the—[Inaudible.]—Valleys regions have waited far too long for real lifestyle improvements.

I don't really recognise the picture that David Rowlands presented, and I recognise he will have drafted his remarks before he had the chance to listen to my contribution. Perhaps on re-reading it, he'll have a chance to reflect that we're not pursuing administrative jobs, we're pursuing real jobs and real economic improvement. And as for his point about too many cooks spoiling this particular broth, I just don't think that's right either. He effectively describes central Government and local government, and of course the Cardiff city deal has a role because the Valleys are part of a broader economic region, so it's right that they are included in part of the broader plans. But I really think that he is trying to make something out of nothing.

I've long campaigned for the beautiful Cwmcarn forest drive to be restored for the people of Wales and the world to enjoy. It's a place where I had my only holidays as a small child and where my father has painted since he was a child. So, its revival also, though, is due to the hugely dedicated people of Islwyn, who have campaigned for its restoration over many years now. It's also because of the Labour-run Caerphilly County Borough Council working in partnership with the Welsh Labour Government that it has now been made into an integral part of the Valleys taskforce as a key gateway site in the Valleys regional park. I'm delighted that the Minister was able to announce that we now have a network of Valleys regional park guardians who are at work in each of the discovery sites that act as a gateway to our green spaces.

Last December, Natural Resources Wales announced plans to redevelop eight recreational sites along the seven-mile forest drive in addition to the play areas that included wooden sculptures and sensory tunnels, as well as a number of all-ability trails and new picnic and seating areas. Deputy Llywydd, although the coronavirus pandemic has slowed this work down, it has not stopped it. Earlier this year, extensive work was carried out that included repairs to road services, landscaping, three new play areas, eight waterless toilets and an award-winning official camping site. So, this innovative project culmination will be a key moment for my constituency—a Valleys constituency—for our tourism and hospitality post COVID. And now, Minister, we need, I think, to—

Sorry. Can you bring your conclusions forward, please?

[Inaudible.]—Islwyn, working within a holistic apprenticeship, education and training skills drive. So, my question, Minister: what actions will the Welsh Government and the Valleys taskforce consider to ensure even better integration between the communities of Islwyn and one of the natural wonders of Wales? And what actions can the Valleys taskforce take to exploit Islwyn's cultural creativity and outdoor future festival and performance programmes within that?

Well, can I pay tribute to Rhianon Passmore for championing the Cwmcarn forest drive and making a very robust case for investment there in her constituency? I think the pandemic and the lockdown have shown us how important having quality landscape and environmental facilities on our doorstep has been to so many people during a very difficult time. I think the Cwmcarn forest drive has been an exemplar, really, in how people have been able to use the outdoors to nourish their well-being, as well as create a different relationship between people and nature. And it's important that we see the Valleys regional park network as the complementary side of the city region's economic focus. The two need to work hand in hand, and certainly that was the example of Stuttgart, which is where the city region movement really earned its spurs, and I know it was somewhere that Alun Davies visited when he was Minister to take inspiration for the gateway projects.

That is why I think it's so important that the regional park is now under the umbrella of the city deal and Anthony Hunt, indeed, the leader of the authority, is the leader of the group that is looking at the regional park to make sure that the point she makes about the economic potential that there still is from this initial investment is fully realised.

Mick Antoniw. We need the mic unmuted. There you go.

Minister, can I welcome very much the positive approach you've made in your statement to the changes and to the initiatives? One of the dangers that I've always found is that the more you talk down an area, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When I first became the Assembly Member for Pontypridd, I hesitated to go in and say to businesses, 'How are things?' because you would then have a tirade. But we've talked up Pontypridd, which is a core town for the Valleys, and with the initiatives from Welsh Government and with the local council, you can see the economic transformation that is taking place. 

In view of the limited time I've got, can I just ask this, Minister? One of the key aspects to regeneration is obviously transport. We have some very, very effective rail transport systems that are developing and being improved, but the bus interconnection with our transport system is absolutely fundamental. Too many of our communities do not have the access necessary to either employment or other forms of engagement, and that is a key to economic regeneration. How do you see the transport system becoming part of the Valleys initiative and achieving those objectives that we all want to see occur? 

Well, an important element of what the taskforce has done, which has been behind the scenes really, has been stitching together different bits of Government activity on the Valleys footprint to make sure we have an integrated approach, and that's not something that really makes it into a ministerial statement, but I think that's been one of its key contributions within Government. The example Mick Antoniw cites is a really good example of that.

The bringing together through masterplans for Caerphilly, Merthyr and, I believe, Pontypridd, has been a really important long-term development for shaping where the metro developments lie, and Pontypridd will have a huge asset in having a train service pretty much every five minutes, once the metro service is fully up and running. We can see the development already taking place, and the TFW headquarters in the town is a real example of that. The pulling down of the unsightly buildings in the vicinity of the train station will, again, open up space and potential for further redevelopment. So, I think transport and the masterplanning of it, and tying that together with other Government initiatives has been a real success story of the taskforce, but their fruits may not be possible to see for a couple of years yet.

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister.