Diolch, Dirprwy Llwydd, and today we’ll explore not only what more can be done to promote employee ownership in Wales, but whether indeed we can introduce a workable Welsh Marcora law. And my thanks to the Business Committee for selecting this proposal for debate and to other Members of the Senedd for supporting the request. I’m looking forward to hearing the contributions today and the Minister’s response.

Now, I declare my interest as a Co-operative Party member and chair of the Senedd Co-operative Party group too. Yet this proposal, I know, has the support in other parties too and in the wider co-operative movement itself, and I look forward to hearing that today.

The Welsh Government programme for government, in the section entitled 'building a stronger, greener economy', reads, encouragingly:

‘We will create an economy which works for everyone, grounded in our values of progressive change—going forward together in the spirit of cooperation, not competition.’

Now, that’s welcome. It reflects the engagement that this Government had in the development of its manifesto with the co-operative agenda indeed. And as co-operation is embedded in the Government programme, which also again has a Minister for responsibility for co-operation, many co-operators as Ministers, and a record number of Co-operative Party Members on these benches too, the programme for government covering this sixth Senedd reiterates a manifesto pledge word for word, pledging to

‘provide greater support for worker buyouts’ and

‘seek to double the number of employee-owned businesses.’

That is real ambition. It’s hugely welcome. It is clear. It’s explicit. It’s in black and white on the printed page for all to see. But not every proposal can make it into a manifesto. We realise that. A manifesto, after all, is not unlike a programme for government—it’s a summary of months if not years of detailed policy development. It boils it down to the oven-ready, publicly digestible fundamentals of what a Government will do. It can’t contain every twist and turn of every policy debate in a windy hall in upper Cwmtwrch or from every Zoom brainstorming meeting crammed full of special advisers, special interest groups, policy wonks and blue-sky thinkers. But I draw the Minister’s attention to one little suggestion, a tiny one, which didn’t quite make it into those final, boiled-down, pared-down, slimline manifesto pledges, and that is to introduce a Welsh Marcora law, to legislate on employee ownership. Fellow co-operators like Christina Rees MP have tried to promote this in the UK Parliament, but they've drawn a blank. But could we do something like this here in Wales?

Where jobs and the local economy rely on one or two larger employers, particularly in manufacturing and industrial sectors, the collapsing or downsizing of just one or two companies can have a huge, disproportionate impact. Unemployment on this scale can have a scarring effect on those individuals, as well as their local communities, for decades. The first step of preventing people becoming unemployed in the first place is crucial. When businesses close or downsize in Italy, the birthplace of the Marcora law—it's great coming from a Welsh Italian here—workers have the right, and the financial support to back it up, to buy out all or part of the business and establish it as an employee-owned co-operative. This rescues either the profitable parts of the business, or even wholly profitable businesses where the margins have just been too small to meet external investors' expectations.

Italy's Marcora law was established over 30 years ago to divert the money that would otherwise be spent on unemployment benefits into retaining the jobs and continuing the economic activity. And it does this by providing workers at risk of redundancy when a business, or part of a business, is about to shut down with their unemployment benefits as a lump sum in advance to use as capital to buy out the business—we know this has happened in Wales in a different context, in a different way—as well as access to support and guidance to make it successful. Now, not only does this keep people in jobs and ensure businesses stay open and productive, it also means the economy over time can shift to a fairer economy, a more democratic structure, where employees themselves have a say and a stake in their workplaces.

Now, I know the Minister will say that this is difficult because of the reservation of powers to Westminster on employment and trade law; I understand that. But we do have powers over economic development, the social partnership, the economic contract, procurement, influence over companies who receive significant Welsh Government funding and more. We have levers that could prize open a Welsh Marcora law within our devolved competencies. And the Minister will rightly, I have to say, point today to the way in which this co-operative Welsh Government is already putting into action its support and funding for the co-operative economy, working alongside the Wales Co-operative Centre and the Development Bank for Wales and others, and we welcome that. But we argue that a Welsh Marcora law would help this Government in this ambitious aim to double the number of employee-owned businesses in Wales. And if he cannot say 'yes' to this proposal today definitively, then work with us to explore this further. Meet with me and the co-operative centre of Wales and others to see us, if we can explore this, to shape this proposal, because I say, 'Where there is a will, political will, then there can be a Welsh Marcora law.' And with those opening comments, I look forward to hearing from other Members.