Timing has never been my thing but i planned this post before today’s unsurprising revelations about the impact of delayed infrastructure projects on North Wales due to the Welsh Government’s tardiness.
Anyway the Assembly’s First Minister Scrutiny Committee met in North Wales just before recess in July and it’s main discussion was infrastructure spending in North Wales and the role of European Funds was raised as part the discussion. Then the possibility of an exit strategy or lack one after the latest round of Wales EU funds was briefly raised by Lib Dem Eluned Parrott - the exchange is below and It simply reinforces to me that fantasy land economics is alive and kicking in Labour and the Welsh Government.
The First Minister: European structural funds are clearly crucial in terms of infrastructure and investment for the future. It is not simply a question of support for business, but, of course, it is possible for us to use structural funds to invest in essential infrastructure for the future.
Eluned Parrott: You have said in the Assembly on a number of occasions that you hope that this will be the last time that Wales is poor enough to require assistance from structural funds. What is the exit strategy?
The First Minister: We do not anticipate that there will be a need for an exit strategy from this year onwards, but we would hope to see the same kind of principles applied when we no longer qualify for structural funds as we have seen elsewhere in Europe, particularly with the highlands and islands in Scotland, where there has been a transitional period, rather than there being a sudden stoppage in funding and then there being no opportunity to adapt. So, we would expect to see any exit strategy in the future based on the transitional arrangements that have been in place elsewhere in Europe in the past.
Eluned Parrott: In order to enter into a transitional period, however, where we are no longer one of the most deprived regions and we are moving away from that, clearly there has to be an exit from having one of the poorest regions in Europe. There has to be a progression and a development. Presumably, in terms of infrastructure development, which is very much a long-term planning situation, there must be some kind of plan that says how we are going to use the European structural funds that we have now to move us to a position where we are moving into this transitional period, rather than being dependent.
The First Minister: Yes. The structural funds are there, of course, to enable people to get opportunities, skills and apprenticeships, and to be able to use their skills to gain better paid jobs in the future—that much is true—and in order to provide the infrastructure that we need for the future. That is also true. It is also correct to say that the ambition has to be to get to a point where we no longer qualify. The figures are slightly distorted by the fact that many people living within the area that gets the highest level of structural funds work just outside that area. As a result, because GDP is counted based on where people work, not on where they live, those who live within the area that we used to call the Objective 1 area but work outside it are counted as a drain on the economic performance of the Objective 1 area. I am one of them, of course, living in Bridgend and working in Cardiff. That is the curious situation. Nevertheless, GDP has improved. Gross domestic household income, which is based on where people live rather than where they work, delivers a significantly higher figure. Again, that figure is moving in the right direction as well. However, we must get to a point, I accept, where we are looking more at a transitional period out of structural funds, rather than being reliant on them for a long period of time.
Eluned Parrott: You have just said again that the ambition is to be in a position where we no longer qualify. My question is: where is the strategy that will make that ambition happen?
The First Minister: You have the infrastructure investment plan as one part of the strategy. You have schemes such as Jobs Growth Wales, pathways to apprenticeships and the funds that are available to businesses to help them grow. You have seen the investment that we have either put in place or are putting in place for the future. One example is the redoubling of the Wrexham to Saltney junction railway line, which will help not just this part of Wales, but areas further west, I believe. There is the investment we have put into the reopening of the Ebbw valley line and the Vale of Glamorgan line and the commitment we have given to the Valleys metro concept. All these things will help to make it easier to attract investment into areas that previously were seen as difficult to get to, physically. Add that to broadband, where the Superfast Cymru scheme will see 96% of premises having access to superfast broadband by 2015, that is crucially important in developing the economy of many parts of Wales that are still struggling with the legacy of the deindustrialisation of the 1980s.
The Committee also took questions from the public in the later session, the First Minister had long gone by then.
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