Fact: poor stewardship of the economy by Welsh Labour has led to Wales having the highest business rates in the United Kingdom, the lowest weekly wages, and the lowest amount of disposable household income in the United Kingdom. The Welsh Conservatives believe that the current Welsh Government have facilitated an anti-business stance, causing poor investment and growth opportunities for two decades.

Recently, a Lloyds Bank barometer found that Welsh business confidence fell by 34 points to -5 per cent, making it the only area surveyed with a negative rating. By comparison, confidence in the south-west of England was at 8 per cent, and Scotland 17 per cent. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that gross disposable household income—GDHI—per head in 2019 for Wales was £17,263. That's the smallest amount compared to the rest of the United Kingdom, with the average being £21,443.

Now, while we are small in population and size, other small countries on the continent have demonstrated greater resolve in being major actors in business and industry growth. Widely recognised as a leader in the global green economy and with the seventh lowest Gini coefficient—a measure of economic inequality—Denmark serves as one economic model for which Wales could actually strive to match and compete with. Home to the Medicon Valley, Copenhagen has attracted big international companies who have used the city as a launch pad into the Nordic, German and Benelux markets. In 2017, 78.8 per cent of all 15 to 64-year-olds in Denmark were active in the labour market—the sixth highest number among all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

Unlike Denmark, however, Wales is rich in renewable energy development. Equally, we have a long and proud agricultural industry, such a thing that has been on the decline in Denmark for many years. Here in Wales, we need to boost the sector by delivering an agricultural support scheme that backs our active farmers and drives up food production, and put a pause on a target of 180,000 hectares of trees until such a time that this Welsh Government can assure us that rural communities are not being driven out by foreign buyers. Focusing on home-grown projects, I am sure that you will join with me in welcoming the Prime Minister—yes, the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP—and his commitment to Wylfa over the next couple of years, and the jobs it will bring to north Wales.

As has been suggested by my colleague Natasha Asghar some time ago, Wales is in desperate need of its own tech and green industry valley, where barriers are lowered for big companies in order to invest, and attractive packages are created to launch a major banking and financial district in the capital, as well as create new services here in north Wales. Looking across the Irish sea and to our friends in the north-west of England, we see around 25 per cent of employees crossing the border between England and Wales for work. In 2019, 1.9 million people and 5.3 million tonnes of goods moved via the port of Holyhead, to and from the island of Ireland to Wales. These are opportunities we can expand and will certainly improve our local communities.

But despite this, the Welsh Government continues to dither and delay on committing to make Holyhead a free port, therefore dragging investment along the north Wales riviera from east to west. A lack of direction and a poor sense of economic development and purpose will continue to let the people of Wales down, as it has done for the past 22 years. No matter who they or you as the Welsh Government try to blame, there is no excuse whatsoever for Wales not to be a thriving, innovative hub in the United Kingdom. We have the tools to build a global capital hub and a thriving, specialised, industry-based economy. If you are struggling for ideas, there are success stories globally, and I think that you should be looking at those.

But tomorrow, our voters go to the polls to elect their candidates in the local authorities, and I would just say, compare 22 years of failed Welsh Labour Government, see it as we have done over many years in Welsh Labour-led local authorities, and I just hope that the Welsh Conservatives, who are fielding more candidates than ever before, will provide that opportunity for our voters tomorrow to come out and firmly vote Welsh Conservative. We need change in Wales, and we can start by people voting Welsh Conservative tomorrow. Diolch, Llywydd.