During my statement last month on UK plans for replacement EU funding and the broad levelling-up agenda, I shared not just my concerns, but those of other devolved national Governments in the UK, parliaments, committees and leading experts. It still remains the case that the UK Government approach to date is incoherent, chaotic, has no considerable or coherent economic rationale, and the current approach lacks agreement or insight. If it continues on this journey, it will fail to deliver the outcomes that our communities deserve. And I don’t just mean here for Wales either because the truth is that’s not just my view that people will be familiar with, but if you were to have this conversation with local government, the higher education sector, or the third sector in Scotland or England as well as here in Wales, there would be a broadly similar view. The challenge is to get through that confusion and get to a framework that really could deliver the sort of benefits that all Governments of different shades across the UK could sign up to and agree.

My predecessor and I have requested meetings with UK Ministers leading on this area to discuss those concerns and to want to reach agreement for a better way forward. The meetings are well overdue, given it’s been over 18 months since Brexit. We know that, sadly, the community renewal fund and the levelling-up fund have not seen a single decision made from the pilots that have been announced. Not a single determination on those pilots. We’re at the point where local authorities right across the UK won’t be able to spend that money successfully within this calendar year, and that’s a real challenge. We’re losing a year of time and money and, actually, the way things are, we’ll lose more time into the next year, because I think it’ll be very challenging for any Government to deliver a proper framework that will be ready and available for implementation within the next year.

So, we do now expect that we might have a high-level policy framework for the shared prosperity fund to be announced at the spending review later this month. And I say again that I hope that the new Secretary of State, Michael Gove, will take a different approach from his predecessors, and generally work with us to deliver UK-wide funds that will deliver better value for money, better outcomes, and won’t put at risk the delivery of national schemes like Business Wales, apprenticeships and the development bank. The current approach also puts at risk that vital funding for a wide range of other partners, not just local government, which are essential for the growth in our communities, but as I said, the third sector, business, and higher and further education too.

I think it was helpful that Alun Davies highlighted his former role as a Minister with responsibility for European programmes, not just the long-standing role that this institution and the Welsh Government have had in making those choices with and for Wales, but the reality that we did learn lessons on what to do. We moved away from an approach that was about very small projects, to looking at bigger, more strategic projects. And yet, the current piloting for both the levelling-up fund and community renewal fund look to deliberately move away from that to have a much smaller, much more localised approach that won’t allow regional or nationally significant projects to come forward. So, there is a lot for us to learn about what we did well, as well as what we don’t think has worked, and that’s part of the challenge the Member set out for the Welsh Government.

But despite all of the challenges we face in the headwinds, in Wales we are definitely most successful when we work together in developing solutions, and I was pleased to hear Alun Davies point out the talent and the commitment that exist within the Welsh Government and local authorities and indeed in the private sector too. And it’s important that we continue to work in partnership with those partners—so, business, trade unions, local government, the third sector and the Welsh Government. We’ve all had conversations, not just in the last week or so, where they’ve been relatively intense, but actually since I’ve been a Minister and before. In many ways, the pandemic has brought us even closer together, not just for the difficult business of survival, but the opportunities for recovery and renewal.

Now, the Member has pointed out that the Valleys taskforce has come to an end, but Dawn Bowden and I are working to embed the work of the taskforce in our long-term plans within the Government as well as with the partners I’ve mentioned. And there is no denying that more needs to be done, and the challenge that the Member puts is a fair one about how we make a difference: rather than talking about what we want to do, what does that mean for people and communities on the ground? And it does require Ministers and partners to work more closely together, not just with continued dedication, but to remember that this is about improving outcomes. And I recognise some of the Member's challenge about working on cross-Government reviews or projects. I had some of that experience in my first Government role, and there was a challenge in getting Ministers to work together towards a shared objective that the First Minister said was a priority for the Government at the time. So, there is challenge here, but a lot of that is about the different levers that we have, the commitment of Ministers, and the ability to use money in the same direction to achieve objectives.