Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:34 pm on 23 March 2021.
Thank you very much, and that contribution just underlines I think how much we will miss the reasoned and reasonable tone of Nick Ramsay's contributions from the Conservative benches, and I wish him well.
Just to address his points: the rural challenge is a very real one, but it is an absolutely achievable one. So, as I've said, we've commissioned a piece of work, which we'll happily publish, on what a package of rural measures looks like, because it'll be different from urban measures, for sure, but it's still achievable, and, if you look at what is currently happening in rural Germany, in rural Switzerland, where, absolutely, there is a bus network where every village has a service every hour, that is what we should be aiming towards. Clearly, we're some way off that, but, if we're going to achieve this strategy over the lifetime of this plan, then we have to be aiming for that, and that is going to require a shift of resources towards public transport to achieve the modal shift target. So, there is a set of measures that we can do, and, again, active travel and electric bikes form part of that, as does the Fflecsi demand-responsive bus service. So, there is a range of realistic and proven measures that can work in a rural setting to achieve these targets there too.
In terms of the work on the metro, that is continuing apace, and TfW remain—. Clearly, COVID has had some impact on that, but it is still broadly on track. I'm not sure what the status of the Celtic Manor interchange is, but I will happily send him a note on that. Then, in terms of electric, we have just published our electric charging plan, which does aim for access for all cars in Wales to charging infrastructure by 2025, which is a significant challenge, given where we're starting from. It is, again, the role of the UK Government to provide this infrastructure. The Welsh Government, as we do on many of these things, looks to see where we can provide gap interventions, but it is for the—. This is a non-devolved area. There is funding going through the ultra-low emission vehicles scheme at the moment, but we face a significant challenge. So, for example, just to give you a sense of the challenge, by 2030 we need an increase in our rapid charging infrastructure by a factor of 10 to 20. That's in nine years' time. So, we really do have to pull our finger out on getting the infrastructure in place to give people the confidence to make the shift to electric cars. As I say, our strategy sets out how we intend to do that, and we hope the UK Government will add value further.