A Carbon-neutral Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 2 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:15, 2 November 2021

Well, Llywydd, thank you to Alun Davies. It's a great privilege to be here in Glasgow and to be able to contribute a Welsh perspective to the debates here and to learn from others. I've seen a great deal since I'm here about the transport of the future. I'm very glad to see that there will be 16 new electric buses in Newport, 36 new electric buses in Cardiff, and I again had the privilege, just recently, to be taken out on one of the new buses that Cardiff Bus will be able to use.

But I completely agree with what Alun Davies said, Llywydd. We have to have a bus service that is regulated in the public interest. That is why we will bring forward legislation during this Senedd term to reassert the public interest. The public invests a huge amount of money in subsidising bus transport here in Wales. Do we get a proper return for the investment that we made? I don't believe that we do. We will roll back the changes made by the Thatcher Government of the 1980s in a belief that the market will always provide the best solution. We know that's not the case. We will take action here in Wales.

Last week's budget was also deeply disappointing in its refusal to recognise the need for infrastructure investment in the rail industry, not simply in the direct responsibilities that the UK Government has, which it continues shamefully to neglect, as far as Wales is concerned, but in the money we ourselves will have. At the end of the spending review period, we will have 11 per cent less to spend on capital investment in Wales than we do in the current financial year. Whatever happened, Llywydd, to an investment-led recovery?