Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 31 January 2023.
We're certainly looking to progress as quickly as possible, and that's the challenge, because the environment around this has changed. The environment in terms of the mortgage market is in a different place now, I'm afraid. We're likely to see a change in house prices over the next year, with a recession largely predicted. So, I'm meeting with my officials and Monmouthshire Building Society on the banking project. The Minister for Social Justice is also now engaged, because I have the task of trying to get the bank established and then it would switch to the Minister for Social Justice's portfolio for its ongoing engagement with Ministers here. The Member regularly raises Buckley, and I think he's also generously agreed that we could call the community bank the Buckley bank if we wanted to. Whilst I don't think we'll do that, we'll carry on keeping Members as informed as possible, and I'm hoping we'll have an update in the coming months on the pace of the work that's being done. I'm also very keen that Monmouthshire Building Society and Banc Cambria themselves engage directly with Members, because, you're right, there is cross-party support for this. It's important that it continues to be seen in that way with direct engagement with Members across the political spectrum.