5. What is the Minister doing to increase the average salary in Dwyfor Meirionnydd? OQ58883

We are using our skills, business support and economic development levers to help create and safeguard good-quality employment and to help improve progression opportunities. This supports our efforts to increase gross disposable income per head as part of our economic mission and our approach to a well-being economy here in Wales.

I thank the Minister for that response, but I fear that the Government is looking for far too simplistic solutions to questions that are far more complex. There are a range of vacant jobs in Gwynedd at the moment; some pay very well, some not so well—doctors, vets, lecturers, teachers, planning officers, carers, and many more. But, nobody is asking the question why people aren't taking up these posts. The recent census shows the population falling here in Gwynedd, with a significant increase in the population over 65 and a worrying reduction in the working-age population. So, there is something far more deep-seated happening here. So, will you as a Minister, therefore, commit to carrying out a deep dive into what exactly is going on in rural Wales, in order to understand this phenomenon as to what is happening, and then, having gathered this information, we could start to identify the solutions to deal with the real problems?

I'm not sure that we need a deep dive, but what I did do at the start of this term, in work that I commissioned Jonathan Portes to do for the Welsh Government, was to look at a range of our challenges and factors. It includes both the reality that, as the Member has said, in some parts of Wales we're seeing a population move away from those areas. That's a big challenge in making sure that we have communities that have a future. It's part of the reason we set out in the economic mission the need to ensure that we help younger people to be able to plan their future in Wales, as well as attracting people to move to Wales to be part of our future story. Those could be Welsh diaspora moving back to us, it could be others too as well, because we want to see a real life for communities that is economically successful.

The challenge is also about the sort of economic future that we offer, which is why we need to invest in skills. It's why we need to recognise that in a range of the areas the Member has mentioned, the point that I made earlier about the relationship with migration is really important. Part of the challenge in the veterinary world that the Member mentioned—and I should note that I think I'm an honorary patron of the British Veterinary Association; my father was a vet as well—is recognising that, actually, part of the big challenge we've had is that a number of vets have come from Europe and further afield, and actually there is a big risk in what's already happened with a number of those people having left the UK. So, the pool for vets is short. At the same time, we're going to have an even bigger demand, particularly because of our changed border arrangements as well.

So, it is multifactorial—I recognise that—and our challenge is how we manage to have a response in the economic mission, but also a range of other Government departments too, that tries to meet that challenge to both get the sort of people we need to come into Wales and to give people who are brought up here the opportunity to plan a successful future in Wales as well, whether that's in urban or rural Wales. That's part of the reason I'm looking at economic development opportunities that aren't simply based around a model that says, 'Move people to cities', because that model itself won't work for Wales.