Welsh Conservative Shadow Environment Minister Andrew RT Davies has warned the new Plaid Cymru administration its proposal to create a new Welsh Development Agency “lacks a clear plan”.
Responding to a statement by Economy Minister Adam Price, Mr Davies said, “I genuinely can’t get a sense that much work has been done on this particular project.”
He warned, “we cannot afford to stand still and need this up and running as quickly as possible.”
He asked Mr Price to confirm when the new organisation would be established, but the minister would not commit.
Mr Price admitted, “I can’t give you a specific date, to be frank.”
Mr Davies said:
“The first weeks of the new Plaid Cymru separatist administration have been marred by broken promises.
“Instead of getting on with implementing change, the separatists are launching endless reviews.
“Plaid’s inability to provide a date for implementing a new Welsh Development Agency is a symptom of a manifesto that included lots of pledges, but no plan.”
ENDS
NOTE: Please find below the Senedd’s record of proceedings from Tuesday 7th July
https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/16083#C766493
Andrew R.T. Davies
15:16:38
Minister, thank you for your statement. You began your response to the previous contribution from the Labour spokesperson by saying that they were very good questions. The good thing about putting good questions is that you want some good answers back. I have to say there were a lot of fine words in this statement. I speak as someone who believes in moving economic development out of Government, because I believe in small Government, agile Government, and using the expertise that we have in the economy. But I generally can’t get a sense that much work has been done on this particular project. We can’t afford to stand still. We need this up and running as quickly as possible.
Could you give me an indication—? In your previous responses you said ‘as soon as possible’. You’re bound to have an idea when you’re going to bring this organisation into existence. Is it 12 months’ time? Is it two years’ time? Is it three years’ time? Or is it the very end of this Senedd term? Can you at least give us a sense of when you believe that this organisation is going to come into being? I’m not going to ask you for every pound, shilling and pence, but can you give an indication on what your thinking is of the type of budget that you will make available to the organisation? As I said, I’m not asking you to drill down into every pound, shilling and pence, but give us a sense of the scale of the ambition that the Government has got.
When we look at the old WDA, it had a complete offer, from building industrial sites to gaining the planning permission and promoting foreign direct investment. Does this organisation, in your mind, need to do all that, or will it be more specific in what it does about promoting Wales as a destination for inward investment? When we look at the organisation, are we thinking of an organisation that will look like NRW with a remit letter, or will this be a unique organisation that hasn’t been seen in the Welsh public landscape before? I’d be grateful for answers to those questions, because they’re not particularly difficult. As I said, from this side of the table, we do support the principle and we want to offer that support, but based on the answers so far, there’s too much blank space.
Adam Price
15:19:00
I am trying to keep my answers short, but let me answer one of the questions. In terms of governance, yes, we do think this should be a statutory body, so our plan is to bring forward legislation fairly soon, as soon as we can. I can’t give you a specific date, to be frank with the Member, but we want it to be operational as soon as possible, so not the third or fourth year. I referred to the fact that the agency in its first year of operation will look different to its third year of operation. There will be an evolution over the course of this term. But we want to get to an operational agency as soon as we can during this term.
In relation to its budget, yes, we have looked across the world at development agencies. Substantial work has already been done. Part of that work is very much looking at budgetary scope. We have got some indicative figures that we will be sharing with the group. We have draft answers in many of these areas, but you will appreciate that the whole point of setting up the group is to share some of our thinking on what we have been able to set out already and stress-test that with some leading thinkers and people with operational experience, who are able to test the outline model that we have.
I want this to be as open and collaborative as possible, genuinely. When we have more of an outline and we have formed the group and we have something further to share, we will do that—on a bilateral basis, meeting with Members, but also through written statements at the appropriate point.
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