Thank your for the series of questions. I'm pleased to note that he recognises the very practical concern that, regardless of the policy framework, the lack of decision making is a real handicap for local authorities of any and every political leadership here in Wales. I hope that decisions can be made, but, as I say, that is already compromising the ability to spend that money in time and effectively in any and every part of Wales.

I have also asked to meet Michael Gove ahead of the spending review. I would like to have the urgent meeting that he referred to. I'm not sure whether Michael Gove has people listening, but it's helpful to hear that there's support from the Conservative benches for him to meet me to discuss these issues themselves. I do think that there is a moment of opportunity in having a conversation about what really can be done, because much of what the Member said mattered to him is directly compromised by the current approach.

If you think about what you said about local authorities, actually, we designed a new framework for economic investment with local authorities as one of our key partners. We've built on those relationships and we've worked with them to design a new framework, and local authorities run those corporate joint committees. They would have a significant say in the way in which future funds would be spent and would design local priorities with us as partners. In fact, CJCs are looking to take on responsibilities sooner rather than later, and, in many ways, there are some consistencies there with the growth deals that the UK Government has jointly funded together with us. It learns lessons from previous rounds of European Union funding to try to make sure that we have larger and more strategic interventions to make a real difference.

Splintering that approach into a local-authority-only bidding process doesn't guarantee that areas in need will be successful in a competitive bidding process—that's one challenge. At the current point, we know that we are losing a significant amount of money—more than £300 million short of what we'll get if the small amounts of money in the pilot funds are actually delivered within this year. That's simply a matter of fact; it's unavoidable and undeniable, regardless of how much the Member shakes his head.

When it comes to the challenges of trying to provide lessons from 20 years of making choices here in Wales, that really underscores the point: 20 years of Ministers in this place making choices and being accountable to this institution for those choices is set to end if the current approach that the previous Secretary of State was headed down continues, because we have no meaningful role in the way that the funds are being designed. One of the few choices that has been made was to deliberately carve out Welsh Government Ministers, so, actually, there's no opportunity to share what's happened, because the UK Government are not interested in listening, or at least they weren't with the previous Secretary of State.

I would say that when the Member talks about Business Wales and the value of it, a significant part of Business Wales's funding comes from these funds. With the way that the current approach is designed, that money won't be there. I can tell you there isn't spare cash down the back of the ministerial sofa that my good friend and colleague Rebecca Evans has to simply make good those funds in that area, or the third of funds that would disappear from apprenticeships that can't be spent under the current approach, or, indeed, the funds for supporting jobs in every single constituency across Wales with the development bank as well.

The current approach, as it is, is significantly flawed and will cost jobs and opportunities in every community in Wales. I hope that Michael Gove will take the opportunity to talk with us and to work with us and to look at how we’re going to have a framework that Wales can work properly within and will not compromise the work we have done, learning the lessons from more than 20 years of making choices here in Wales, and for us and everybody to work effectively with partners here in Wales to create jobs and opportunity as we wish to do so.