15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
Peter will come in on this point.
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
I believe Ken Skates is due to make a further statement, a written statement, on this. I'm not sure if it's already been provided over the last couple of days, but it's on the way. Broadly speaking, the way in which we were able to respond in partnership with…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
Do you mean generally as a result of Brexit, or because of the Holyhead issue?
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
I would just emphasise the point about the challenge being in relation to the quantum of funding. So, colleagues will remember that, some time ago, I made a written statement in my finance role where I showed our calculations in terms of there being a £772…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I'll perhaps ask Duncan to come in. I know that the existing programme, at least, was due to, as you say, come to an end in 2025.
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Since the first allocation, the programme has now invested over £40 million, so we would obviously want to continue investing and supporting jobs and growth in the area. To date, the programme has created 298,000 sq ft of new and refurbished floor space, and…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Yes. It comes, essentially, through our budget and then to the city and growth deals.
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
That's funding that the UK Government has reprofiled, so it doesn't change the overall quantum of funding coming from the UK Government, just the profile across different financial years.
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
We've got the Deputy First Minister with responsibility for rural affairs in next, and largely the support that we provide is through his portfolio, although I did provide a written statement recently alongside him in terms of what we're doing in the planning…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Within the draft budget, the funding that we're providing is more in the space of the publicly owned energy, rather than trying to lever in the private investment, because the way in which we lever in the private investment is more around the policy choices…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
And the Welsh Government energy service, so that's the £21 million that Duncan referred to, is available for the public sector to be able to provide them with support to be able to move towards that challenging test that we've set in terms of net zero by 2030.
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Or creating new—
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I think that the funding that you’re specifically talking about is the property BEL, which looks at how we provide space and buildings for businesses. We’re looking to develop those very much in a way that contributes to our route to net zero. Tomorrow, I’ll…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
In terms of energy, we’ve been really careful to understand that we need to be doing more as a Welsh Government in that particular space. So, you’ll see funding allocated within the budget towards both Ynni Cymru and Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru. Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
So, we've already said, for the next financial year, that we'll be providing the 40 per cent support to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. This was always was a time-limited response to the pandemic. Ultimately, businesses do need to be sustainable…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I think, often, in discussions with the sector and with representative bodies of the sector, you actually only hear about the tourism levy, the 182 days. What you don't hear about, of course, is the huge funding that we've put into Visit Wales. So, the work…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Well, we listen to the sector through the regional fora and also the Welsh Local Government Association's economic forum. I meet directly, myself, with representative bodies of the sector, but then, of course, speak to individuals who work in the sector as…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I think we offer a very wide range of support. So, there is a balance, I think, when we're setting up specific grant schemes in order to respond to specific challenges or Welsh Government desires in terms of more sustainability for the sector, whereas the…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
We always try and aim to be as flexible as we can in the support that we provide, but, equally, you know, we have to ensure that, when we're providing public money to businesses or organisations, we are expecting something very clear from that money as well…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
So, all of that £1 million will provide a capital fund for Welsh tourism businesses to futureproof themselves, and particularly to do so in terms of weatherproofing. So, we listened to the tourism sector through the barometer survey, which colleagues will be…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
It's a really interesting point, though, because this budget is different to some of my other colleagues', in the sense that we do have choices. Almost in any area of the whole portfolio you can put additional money in and you can do more, but where you…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I would, Chair, as well, encourage any colleague to visit the community hub in Aberavon shopping centre and talk to the people who are there, because you'll hear from them then very direct stories about people who have come in, and not just workers…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
Yes. We are able to share some of those figures in relation to Tata. So far, I think around 15 Tata employees have been supported through the ReAct+ programme, and 41 people whose jobs have been made redundant from the supply chain have also accessed those…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I think money is part of the story sometimes, but not always. I think what’s more important often for international investors is the skills offer that we have, the property offer that we have, and that kind of wider ecosystem of support that we have in Wales…
15 January 2025 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning and the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
I think also there’s a role for the UK Government in this space as well in terms of using its international offices to market Wales as well. It can’t just be about marketing England; actually, they do have a responsibility to market Wales, to make those links…
