, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
I think there are, perhaps, two things—if you wanted to give some credit to the UK Government—they learnt. The first was that they themselves recognised that the scatter-gun approach was problematic and they wanted to have a plan to invest against that wasn't…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
So, that was in the last two weeks. They were two weeks of very intensive engagement, and it meant that Ministers, special advisers and officials worked through the weekends to try to get something sensible, and that was driven by the UK Government wanting to…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
So, if you take a step back to the pilot funds, community renewal and levelling up, we were, literally right at the end of the process, given a 50-word summary and asked, 'What do you think?', and we said, 'This isn't meaningful; we're not going to engage our…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
And the sector here as well.
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, this is all about the politics of the matter. It's not just the mandate from five or six elections to this place, there have been two referenda that have established this place with the network of powers that we have. The United Kingdom Internal Market…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, I don't disagree. We've done some of that in Wales as well. We've moved civil servants to different places, and local authorities have done some of that in the way that they have moved their office space around. There's a different challenge, of course…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Yes, look, when it comes to the use of the shared prosperity fund, we only have an influencing role, we don’t have a decision-making role. And that is a real problem, because it isn’t just a sense of grievance from a Welsh Minister who says, ‘This has been…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, that's what we want them to do, and that's the reason why we had an investment framework. It's why we encourage each other along to have the regional plans that they provided, the regional economic framework, because that means the framework to then…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, I think it comes back to, not just comments we've made, but the UK select committees and their own Public Accounts Committee—this doesn't look like a great use of public funds, and not great value for money overall. So, I think it would be wrong to say…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
The levelling-up fund is a different fund. It replaces the towns fund in England. And, again, there is a range of criticism about the way the towns fund was created in England. We used to get a Barnett consequential for that. When the levelling-up fund was…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
The WLGA did have a lot more direct engagement with those UK Government officials, but that's because the UK Government department was creating a relationship that didn't exist, because, of course, the department that's been running levelling up now for the…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
I think it's both, in the sense that—
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
You're going to have a perspective on how we've used funds in the past and how we're are still using EU run-off funds. You've got a role as the chair of the programme monitoring committee for that. What you will see in the way that the UK Government developed…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
No. That's the broader challenge around the cost of living in its broader sense. It's not just for households but actually for businesses and other affected sectors. So, I don't think you could directly point to a comparable source of UK funding. That is when…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
That's different. So, when we talk about the over £1 billion, that's on the programmes that we're talking about now that we would've had. It doesn't take into account the new fund that was created that Peter referred to earlier.
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
What I think it's also worth mentioning in terms of some of the differences is that having netted off in a way that we disagree with, the challenge is that there isn't any plan or any commitment at all in future years to invest that money that they're netting…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
I will ask if Peter can start this, as he's leading the group and he isn't a politician. He'll give you straight answers about how much we think is available and then if there are matters for Ministers to deal with in response, we can do that. So, Peter.
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
No. Rebecca do you want to—.
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, Ministers who engage with UK Government Ministers on a range of levels make this point. So, whilst I've got a lead role within a lot of this space, and Peter Ryland works in my department, as it were, Rebecca directly takes it up with finance Ministers…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
Well, I don't think it's terribly difficult, actually. The manifesto commitment was to replace and, at a minimum, match the size of former EU funding to nations in the UK. So, that's pretty unambiguous and that isn't what's happening. And I know you've had a…
, Finance Committee
Post-EU funding arrangements: Evidence session 3
I'm Vaughan Gething, I'm the Minister for Economy.
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Economy
I think the clue is in the words 'business crime'. Crime and the criminal justice system are not devolved to this place, at least not yet. So, it will require us to engage with UK agencies. We regularly work with police forces, because police forces recognise…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Economy
I meet regularly with representatives of hospitality, tourism, events and the night-time economy through the visitor economy forum. The forum was established to discuss a range of issues relating to the opportunities and challenges facing the sector. I look…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Economy
Well, actually, the development of the hotel was something that was discussed in a meeting earlier today with officials, when looking at diversifying the economy, not just in west Wales, but some of the challenges around port investment as well, because there…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Economy
Thank you. Our priorities continue to be to support new and existing businesses through Business Wales services and the regional support team. We have provided extensive support through the pandemic and post-Brexit trading realities. We're committed to…
