Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 28 March 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:57, 28 March 2023

Well, I don't think it probably does mean anything actually here today because there are existing commercial, contractual relationships in place that govern the price of water today. The leader of Plaid Cymru is right to say that the Welsh Government has a direct interest in how those contracts are shaped for the future. I do not, myself, sign up to a nationalist view of water; I don't object to English people drinking Welsh water. But what I do say is that the economic, environmental and wider benefits for Wales must be demonstrated in any relationship in which the natural resources of Wales are used to the benefit of other citizens in the United Kingdom, and in any renegotiation of those contractual arrangements, then the price that is paid for that precious natural resource must reflect the value of that resource to Wales as well as allowing its beneficial use for other UK citizens.