5. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Future domestic Rural Development Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:35 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 4:35, 23 February 2021

Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for those lists of observations and comments and questions. You talked about disallowance and allegations against RDP projects, and I am, obviously, aware of those. Appropriate and proportionate checks are taken to ensure that eligible expenditure is reimbursed, and that includes recovery of payments that have been made during the lifetime of a project, and I think that's really important to understand—that there are a variety of stages during the life of a project.

I should also say that the Welsh Government has obligations to the European Commission—they monitor and they oversee all of the RDPs, and we are meeting and we continue to meet those obligations, and that needs to be recognised, and the Commission has repeatedly articulated their satisfaction with our programme. Our record on disallowance is the best in the UK and it's one of the best in Europe, and it really compares very favourably with the European Union. I think their average is about 2.1 per cent, the UK average is about 2.4 per cent, and the disallowance on our spend is 0.14 per cent. So, I hope that you'll join me in recognising that. I think it's a very naïve approach to public finances to suggest value for money is something that only can be assessed at one stage of a project. Every Member here knows that value for money for public spend has to be assessed at every stage of the project going forward.

You talked about the enabling natural resources and well-being grants, and those projects are being developed along with cross-sector co-operative projects at the right scale. It does predominantly support projects that make improvements in residential areas by delivering benefits for people, for businesses, and their community. And again, each project is required to set out the multiple benefits that we're doing.

I do appreciate that for some organisations, moving away from core funding to a more project-and-outcome-based model was faster, perhaps, than was originally expected, and it caused concern. But we are allowing time and funding for organisations to transition and action the exit plan that they were asked to set in place. Officials continue to meet with organisations to talk through the grant, and we've been very clear that what was considered to be core funding in the past can now be built into the future-based grant applications, and I have to say the feedback that's come back via officials and from myself with engagement with stakeholders has been very positive. This is the first window of the ENRaW funding. All large-scale projects have been issued with 'proceed at risk' letters, and they were required to produce those detailed delivery plans you referred to, and those plans were based on their original applications, and perhaps focused more on the operational delivery.

It is absolutely important that we listen to stakeholders, and as I said, going forward to the new Government when they take the future RDP forward—it is really important that we look to learn from the existing RDP, and it's also really important that we take action in the context of our own Welsh Government priorities. And certainly the climate emergency must be at the fore of that. So, it is really important that we talk to a wide range of stakeholders, not just the ones that you referred to, but also that we look around the world at best practice to bring forward new projects and make sure that that targeted investment has the most benefits and impact. I mentioned the climate emergency. Obviously, we have a biodiversity emergency as well. And, of course, we have Brexit to deal with. So, I think it's not business as usual—that's not an option any more—but we must learn from the current RDP.