Thank you very much, Llywydd, and I am delighted to move the motion and to open this debate on the Finance Committee’s report on post-EU funding arrangements. The issue of EU replacement funding has a particular salience in Wales, given that it was the largest recipient of EU funding relative to its population of the UK nations. As a committee, we considered this as a priority, and our inquiry took a deep-dive into replacement EU funding, with the aim of clarifying the level of funding received here in Wales.

As part of this, we considered the UK Government’s funding schemes, namely the community renewal fund, the levelling-up fund and the shared prosperity fund. Given the cross-cutting nature of our inquiry, we were pleased to hear from the Welsh and UK Governments, and I would like to place on record my thanks to the Ministers who appeared before the committee.