4. Statement by the Minister for Economy: The Shared Prosperity Fund and Levelling-up Fund

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 28 September 2021.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:28, 28 September 2021

That is the message that we have tried to offer on a number of occasions and, to date, we have not had prompt or timely replies from the previous ministerial team. And I do hope that, with a new Secretary of State, there will be an opportunity to reset what we are able to do. And the point the Member makes about other partners is well put and, in many respects, those partners are trying to say, 'Look, we don't want to get involved in disagreements between the two Governments, but we do want to know what the rules are and we want to know we're not going to be excluded.'

For example, higher and further education, in the last six years of European programmes, £405 million, they spent. At present, with the current design, they wouldn't get anything. For the private sector, £272 million in the last six years, and the third sector £113 million. At the moment, there's no route for them to have any access under the current design of the programme, and that just doesn't make sense, as well as the points I made earlier about undermining apprenticeships, Business Wales and the development bank. So, there is an opportunity to reset and to come up with a much better answer and deliver much better outcomes for the people we are here to represent.