7. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: The Foundational Economy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:48 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 5:48, 23 February 2021

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, I really welcome the statement and I absolutely endorse the idea that we need to experiment with this and try it, but we also need then to roll it out at scale. I just came back at lunch time from a walk down my high street. Now, prior to coronavirus, we were starting to pick things up, and, in fact, we've got a lot of investment here in Maesteg, but I could do the same in the Garw and in the Ogmore valley and elsewhere. We're going to have to have such a pushback for these communities coming back from COVID, and particularly when we've seen some of the announcements over retail, for example, and so on. It strikes me, Minister, that the diversity of the approaches that have been taken in the different pilot areas are excellent, because we can all pick something that would give us strength and a different approach, but what strikes me is that this seems to lend itself to an approach that is not just driven on a regional basis by PSBs and by local authorities, but actually something to do with the fora of local communities that can sit down, can learn from that community that you were talking about, about what has worked, where the difficulties are, and then fashion their own grasp of that future, whether it's around food procurement and delivery into local agencies and authorities, whether it's to do with community ownership and management, whether it's building local enterprise on high streets and within those Valleys communities. There's something here, Minister, about engaging with local people, not just with local authorities, PSBs and so on. Now I'm looking forward to this. I really hope that this will continue, not just now, but after the next election into the sixth term. And if we do that, Minister, what would your advice be on the best way to roll this out, so that this bites deeply into each local community, and each local community throughout Wales can really take this forward? There's something about doing it for yourself, but rolling out that community of practice that says, 'We've got some ideas about how this can work.'