Rural Development

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 15 February 2023.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:24, 15 February 2023

Thank you. As you said, we were promised not a penny less, but unfortunately, we know, as a result of the UK Government not honouring its commitment to replace EU funding to Wales, we are actually £1.1 billion worse off. And clearly it's not possible to find that significant sum of money from within our own budget, so we do know that, certainly in my portfolio, our farming sector, our rural economies, will lose out on around £243 million of replacement EU funding over the last two spending periods.

It's really important that we do continue to fund as many projects as we can, and have as many new schemes for the agricultural sector and for our rural economy. So, you'll be aware of the announcement I made around the rural investment schemes, for instance, to support our farmers, our foresters, our land managers and our food businesses across the rural economy. So, there is a significant number of projects within that. I'm unaware if the specific project you mentioned is able to access further funding, but, obviously, we will continue to invest in our rural economies.