Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 14 December 2021.
I'm absolutely able to give the Member that assurance. His own constituency is I think a fine example of the investments made by successive Labour Governments here in Wales to tackle structural disadvantage. Huw Irranca-Davies mentioned Flying Start, Llywydd; what a contrast between the way in which we have sustained and continued to invest in Flying Start in Wales while the parallel programme in England, which did such good work during the period of the last Labour Government in the UK, has simply been abandoned by the Conservatives in the last decade.
And it's more than just Flying Start; it is, as Huw Irranca-Davies has said, the way in which we have invested in childcare facilities for working families in places like Nantyffyllon. I know it was my predecessor, Carwyn Jones, as First Minister, who opened Caerau Primary School a new building for the young people of that area. And our investment in dealing with structural inequalities, Llywydd, has gone beyond what you might think of as the standard mainstream services as well. I know that Natural Resources Wales's largest investment in community woodland in Wales is in the Llynfi woodland in the Member's constituency—a new woodland grown on a former coal site.
But the other thing that I'm always really struck by in the Ogmore constituency, Llywydd, is the way in which action by public services is matched by outstanding community effort as well—the Skyline project, and I know the Member is a passionate supporter of that great development, and the Caerau Development Trust that he discussed with me recently, its astonishing breadth of activity and the sense of community enterprise that it brings. It's great to see, Llywydd, by the way, that the trust's community centre is being used by police community support officers. And that's another investment that the constituency will see from a Labour Government.
Of course when you are dealing with deeply ingrained structural inequalities, there is more that needs to be done. But our ability to mobilise the power of Government, alongside the commitment of local communities, is the way in which I think we can see progress, and in the Member's own constituency in the examples he has cited this afternoon, I think you see that absolutely in action.