 Bona da croeso i bob. Thank you for joining me for this morning's Welsh Government press conference. Last week, we marched National Manufacturing Day, celebrating the people who make the goods that we rely on every day, and the products of a rapidy changing world. And we make them here in Wales. I want to describe today the work that the Welsh Government is doing to support jobs and businesses to the threat that we face, a how we are back on the jobs of the future that is coming. This week I will be holding talks with a range of businesses to promote the role that Wales is determined to play in turning net zero commitments into quality fair employment that brings long-term security to family finances. We will go on promoting Wales as a great place to do business in an economy that is geared up for the future. Y terser is urgent becaw'r inflation, mortgage rates, energy bills, a new trade ffrictions have forced many businesses into survival mode. These pressures cut through household and businesses and indeed Welsh Government finances. All of which offer less security for family budgets. followed by rural isolation and pozw� To Lars and themselves, help in protecting SMEs, this contact makes the work of services like the Development Bank for Wales and Business Wales all the more important. They offer broad package of loan and grant options, advice and mentoring to help to protect and create jobs in every part of Wales. The survival rate of the businesses that we help is higher than the overall rate, including the ambitious new startups that we have helped through our young persons guarantee. Where businesses do fail, we have a bespoke package of support for the workers impacted, with free training and help to the costs of finding new work, including childcare and transport. Our approach in bringing together unions, local authorities, y DWP a'r oedd yma yn achos cymryd yn bwysig i yw'r ysgrifennu newydd. It is deeply concerning that jobs have suddenly become at risk of the UK windows and doors site in Romper. This is a hugely important employee to the local economy and generations of families in Triochi and the surrounding area have contributed to that business's success for many years. Mae'r gwelltyni arfer o'r ffordd, ac rydyn ni'n amser ei ddweud bod y ddweud o'r ffordd ar hynny sy'n ei ddweud y ddweud i'r rhaid o ddweud o'r ffordd i'r bobl yn rhaid o'r adroddau'r llei'r oed. Felly, rydyn ni'n meddyliadol i'r ysgrifennu Llyfrgell Búffydd Williams, ac yn fath o ddweud yn ffr�edigion y cyfnodol i'r ddweudol i'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud. Roedd y gallu gennych amyfyrdd y bydd y cerddod canweddol iawn o'r amser. Roedd y gallai fanyl i'r gennych gweithio ar yr oherwydd o bwysig o gyngor, cyfrifiadol o'rredig y bydd iawn o'r ffyrdd wedi'i gyrwygr â'r cyfrifiadol. Roedd hynny'n mynd i amdano i'r wyf yn ddwyf, neu'r uwch i methu ddechu'r wedi'i tyfu unrhyw sy'n bwysig i'u cyfrifiadol o'r cyfrifiadol o'r gyrwg. Mae'r llyfridiaeth yw'r llyfridiaeth o'r oeddiant i'r mynd i'r gymhau, rydych yn llawer o'r cymryd yn ymgyrch yn ymgyrch o'r llyfridiaeth. Mae'r cyfrannu yn dweud i'w ddweud i'r hynny, doedd yn cael eu cyfrannu yn ymgyrch o'r llyfridiaeth. Mae'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu i'r cyfrannu, Maen nhw yng Nghymru, mae'r angen i gweithio y fforddin gwaith fel y ganodd meddwl o'r bwysig i gweithiau newyddol. Fyddwn yn siŵn gweithio'n fforddin gweithio, dda'r meddwl am iawn i gweithio'n gweithio. mafia'r angen i gweithio gweithio'n ei lawr yn amlwg. Ond y gofyn yn ffforddol i'r angen i gweithio, mae gennyddoedd yfodol i gweithio'n angen i gweithio. When the right calls are made, there is plenty to be ambitious about. For those watching this session on a smartphone, semi-conductors made in Wales are almost certainly built into your device. And as emissions come down, demand for and investment in this technology will go up. Evidence in the US shows the cost of the semiconductor technology in a petrol or diesel car is around $500. For an electric car, that cost increased to around $4,000. That's just one example of the growth we can expect in the semiconductor sector. Growth that can help to turn Wales's strengths into more quality, skilled jobs with good pay and prospects. We've invested in this industry for many years. More recently, I've worked closely with the US-based firm KLA to anchor their expansion plans in Newport. This sees the creation of over 350 new jobs at their site. Another feature of the future of our economy is also clear. A net zero UK economy needs Welsh steel. From tins of baked beans and new homes to electric cars and the turbines harnessing the power of offshore wind, steel will be the thread that runs through the economy of today and tomorrow. We can choose to make the steel for more or less of these products in Wales and the UK as a whole. For years, we have urged the UK government to decide on a clear, funded strategy for steel to maximise production in a greener sector. In 2018, the Welsh government invested £2 million in the creation of a steel research institute at Swansea University. We brought together industry and researchers to explore the technologies needed to create a greener industry. Last year, I launched net zero industry Wales at Tata's Port Talbot site. This will help industry across Wales to reduce emissions and steal a march on competitors to protect and create jobs. I've been clear that an earlier decision would have allowed for a longer transition at Tata that could have injected more certainty into the sector. It is a matter of deep regret that the Welsh Government was not included in any of the talks regarding that proposed deal. I would take our calls for the UK government to engage in regular and reliable dialogue on the future of a transition with a business that employs over 6,000 people in Wales and are such a major role to play in creating UK-made products for the future. There is a far greater case for getting this right. Getting growth up across the UK's regions and nations is the route to meeting our net zero goals, to boosting living standards and to lifting children out of poverty in the long term. And none of us should ignore that the US has chosen a new direction that sets a bar for all economies that are serious about securing growth and restoring trust. As the US invests in growth where it's most needed, communities that have felt shut out of being put in the driving seat in a model based on unlocking their strengths with broader-based growth. Since 2021, businesses have invested $500 billion in US manufacturing and clean energy, two sectors of strength in Wales across businesses with major US links. Around 49,000 jobs are supported by US investment in Wales, often delivering higher wages and quality manufacturing in places like GE in Nangarro and Raytheon in Flintshire, as well as the semiconductor investment I've already referred to. So these major shifts and the way we respond matter to the career prospects and household budgets of people right across Wales. Meeting this challenge requires a UK policy that overcomes economic centralism and embraces the partnerships that can lift up the industries of the future, especially on clean energy. And it would regard culture wars as explicitly damaging to confidence and growth, as well as being harmful and, frankly, nasty to those on the receiving end of discrimination. That's part of the reason why you'll see Welsh Ministers celebrating Black History Month throughout October, and it's why you'll never see Welsh Ministers peddling culture wars. On our How to Take Questions from Jonas, we have some in the room and some on screen. And I think we're going to start with Dan Davies from BBC Wales. Thanks, Minister. You say that you've spoken to the local MS, Buffy Williams, and you're going to be talking to unions as well. Have you spoken to the company itself, Windows UK, the administrators, I think, talking about unsustainable losses? It doesn't sound like that that is a sort of business that another owner would want to step in and buy. But have you spoken to the company? I haven't spoken directly to them. I've written to the company. What is interesting about the journey of this country is that they were talking with the local authority in the summer about investing in the future. They were talking with Welsh Government officials about investing in the future at the end of the summer, and then at the end of September, call stop being returned. So you've seen quite a rapid change in what's happening within that business. So the challenge hasn't been that we haven't been trying to talk to the company over the last week or so. There's just been a stop in the communication. Now we know from previous companies that have gone into administration that it is possible to save some or all of the business as a go-in concern, and that is my first priority as I've set out. We also know that if that doesn't happen, there are alternatives we need to examine about the opportunities to help other workers find jobs. As we have done, whether that's in Tulare Valley Foods or in Two Sisters, we've always looked seriously at those alternatives to work, but the started one should be how much employment can be saved, and does the administration process create an opportunity for that to happen? I'm going to say we're an expecting announcement on HS2 from the Prime Minister, who knows, but if it was cancelled to Manchester, what would that mean for the Welsh economy? And why have you not been able to secure a commitment from Keir Starmer that a Labour government would deliver that Barnett funding that you say you're owed? Well, there's two different points here. The first is that if the HS2 leg is cancelled beyond Birmingham, then it would be an extraordinary thing for the Conservative government to betray the north of England in a former railway building in Manchester. You can't get over the reality of what is happening and the disgraceful way in which it's been leaked with all the uncertainty that it generated by the UK government that they then refused to resolve. The First Minister has been on record, and I completely agree with him, that it's always been a fiction that HS2 is an England and Wales project. All of the Department for Transport's own assessments show that there was a net negative to the Wales economy, and yet consequence that went to Scotland and Northern Ireland were never provided to Wales. So there's never been a fair share from this project anyway. However, as the First Minister said, cancelling that project north of Birmingham would explode the fiction that this is an England and Wales project. If there is a reinvestment in different projects across North England, that will reiterate this is an England only project, and there should be consequentials. Now we need to deal with the government of the day, and they need to deliver on what the rules state should happen. There should be a consequential. A future government, I would expect, would deal with the rules and Barnett consequentials as they should be. But I think people demanding that Keir Starmer makes pledges before an election has actually been called, before anyone's seen the books, are living in a different world. There will be a Labour conference next week. There will be more coming from the Labour party, I'm sure, about the future. But you wouldn't expect to see a fully funded and costed manifesto until then. But I'm confident that with a different government that has already set out its commitment to partnership, has already set out the former EU funds, will be coming back to Wales. That lost billion that Wales has seen picked from our pockets, has not been restored by the Conservatives. Replacement EU funds in the future will come back to Wales for decision making and partnership here in Wales. And that, I think, is already a clear marker of the difference that Labour could and would make in fair shares right across the UK. We now have Bronwyn Weatherby from LBC, who's again in the room with us. Good morning. On HS2 again, as you said, it's a loss, a massive loss to the Welsh economy, that we're not getting those Barnett consequentials. What actions are you actually taking to try and secure those? Are you going to take legal action, for example? What's the Welsh government doing? OK, so the way that the Barnett form is supposed to work is that they should be fairly straightforward. When things are England only, there should be consequentials for other parts of the UK. What's odd about HS2 is that it was designated as an England and Wales product despite none of it coming to Wales. On the basis that links to crew would be improving, that would help the Welsh economy. The difficulty is that political argument and judgment made by ministers in the UK government ignores the reality of their own impact assessment that showed it would actually be a net negative for the Welsh economy. So it's always been a fiction. This is part of the difficulty in having, if you rely on people to do the right thing, they don't always do that. And the current UK government have got lots of form on this. So there isn't a legal route to take on this. This is about whether people are prepared to do what they say they're going to do. And in this case they simply haven't. It's always been a fiction that it was an England and Wales project. It simply isn't. It's regularly raised by ministers in meetings and we regularly get the same answer. Whether it's Rebecca Evans talking to her seventh or eighth chief secretary to the Treasury or by climate change ministers talking to counterparts in transport departments. This is really about the Tories doing down Wales, picking our pocket and expecting us to be happy about it. No one should be. And we're going to carry on making the case for a fair share of future investment for the current and indeed any future UK government. OK. In terms of the UK Labour position on HS2, their position is that they want to see the project finished. Are you saying that if they get into power in the next general election, you can rely on them to do the right thing? I'm saying that if we get a different government, we can expect to have an entirely different conversation that actually looks at where money is spent and where consequentials should flow. HS2 has a whole range of challenges from it not starting at any at Houston in London to the potential cancellation. Any incoming government will need to look at the mess it is going to be left with at a UK level. But I expect there to be a conversation based on values and fairness when it comes to how we invest in infrastructure across the UK and how England only projects do deliver proper consequentials here for us in Wales. But you have no commitment from Keir Starmer? I'm not expecting there to be commitments this side of an election on anything in this sort of detail. As I said earlier, and you can't understand what the book is going to look like, but I'm very confident we'll get an entirely different conversation. I've got Rob Osborne who is joining us by Link from his car. I'm very impressed you're able to work remotely and you're at a standstill as well in case anyone is concerned. Hands free and I'm standstill. Let's return to the wrong jobs for a second. At the last 18 months or so, we've seen loads of manufacturing plants close in Wales, some of them in the valleys. Some of those jobs would have replaced heavy industry, the coal mines. But now they're going. So what jobs could replace them? I think we do have a positive future for manufacturing, Rob. On National Manufacturing Day, I was out visiting manufacturers in Caerbont looking at some of the different things they do there with Make UK, who are the industry body for manufacturing organisations. One of our challenges in a sector that we're confident will see change and growth is in persuading more people that there is a positive future. Modern manufacturing is not the way in which some people have an image of it. It's not always work that is physically demanding or dirty. If you go to look at a semiconductor operation, it's actually very clean. It's very technical. You look at advanced manufacturing at Airbus, a genuine world-class manufacturing at Broughton. You look at GE, there are jobs there that need skilled people, men and women to be able to do those. And actually, the sector is saying overall that it wants more people to see the opportunities within it. What we're seeing is a difficult period of time that everyone is going through. And as I mentioned in the opening statement, that's driven by a range of factors. The extraordinary inflation we've lived through, the reality of new trading frictions that is a real problem for manufacturing businesses that have often looked to export their goods in the past. And you've also got the challenges of a general cost of living. Liz Truss has been given an extraordinary welcome at Tory Conference. She was still the leader a year ago, but her near seven weeks in office caused a huge dent in family incomes. All of those things matter to businesses as well. So we will see some businesses I think were likely to see more business challenges and some other failures. But we also see that overall the manufacturing sector still has a bright future. And there are lots of the skills that those manufacturing businesses want in South and North Wales. What we're trying to do is to have a view about getting to that future and how we can invest alongside businesses. And we'd like to be able to do that alongside partners both here in Wales, so local authorities and the way they work in the four regions. We'd like a UK government as a partner, not a competitor who is always seeking to cut across areas that we are responsible for. Then I think we really can deliver a brighter future for families in every part of Wales. And no government, wherever they are in the world, can talk about the skills and the jobs of tomorrow without having a thriving higher education sector. Universities, but we know universities here in Wales are struggling. So if you want universities to thrive and to have the highly skilled people that we need, shouldn't you as a Welsh government now allow them to increase tuition fees and charge what they need to in order to get on with their job? There are two things. First, I'll directly address the point about higher education. Now we know that the higher education sector is saying that it needs to generate more income. There is always a challenge if you want to change funding policy. And I think the Education Minister has been very clear about us maintaining the seventh we have. It's not something where you're seeing universities having an immediate funding challenge. They're thinking about the future. Now a lot of that then depends on the broader investment you get into education and to other services as well. And that's why the course of the UK government matters so much. When I talk to vice-challegers and I do in a variety of areas, they're realistic about the challenges we face. Realistic about the challenges of the Welsh government budget and the challenges of wanting to change a settlement on student funding and how that works. There is a broader conversation to be had post a UK election and what I hope will be a new and a different settlement for the future. The second point is and I do need to disagree with you on some of this. The skills that we need, some of them will come in higher education from traditional university study. Some of them will come from higher education qualifications delivered largely through work. I've been, for example, I mentioned earlier there are others in the sector as well where people can get degree level qualifications actually whilst they're still working as well. And further education has a huge part to play in delivering skills for the future. And in many ways, getting people who don't go through an academic group but lots of skills we'll need in manufacturing, further education will, I think, have at least if not a bigger role to play. It's why the conversation we're having about the future, we need to recognise the different paths but the same value you can generate from those different courses. I met a group of young learners from Wales who've been competing in Euro skills competitions and they'd been recognised the skills they had. They'd all come through further education. They're all going to be crucial to the manufacturing future we want as well as alternative trades we're all going to need in the future as it changes. Thanks, Rob. We've now got Ruth Masowski from Wales Online who I think will be joining us remotely as well. Hi, thank you. It's obviously been a bleak day for people in the valleys. What can you say to them about what you're going to do to make the valleys a better place for employment and for jobs? And part of the reason I ask that is I've just got the phone to Gareth who is someone who's worked there for the third of his life and his question was quite simple. He says there's young families, people with young families that work there, people with mortgages to pay. His question was what do we do now? And that'll be the challenge facing lots of families following the announcement made by UK winners about going into administration. That's why I've said our starting point here is we want to understand with the administrators whether it's possible for there to be a going concern or a potential buyout to save as many jobs as possible. If that isn't possible then we'll look to see what else we can do to support the workforce. As we did in Tilary Valley Foods, we're actually the great majority of people because of the partnership approach we took with the local authority and the DWP. The great majority of people did find alternative work really quickly and I'll be able to have figures in the next day or two and the numbers of people that have found work and those that are still having support through the React Plus process as well. So it does show that the levers we have and the way we design our support does make a practical difference. If you're going through the uncertainty of the last few days and if you and your family have faced the reality that your job is going with the current employer, I understand why people will feel desperate and despondent. It's the largest employer across the room that we're talking about. But that's why this government will continue to remain active with the administrators, with the local authority and with the DWP. What I won't do is to make promises of finding jobs tomorrow or the day after in particular sectors in a way that will be unrealistic and unhelpful. What I will do is to double down on support we provide for people and our commitment to finding alternative work for as many people as quickly as possible, as locally as possible. And then continue the theme over to HS2. Again, is it not just ingenious for you to say that we need to wait for there to be an election for Keir Starmer to commit to whether there will be a Barnett consequential, whether HS2 will happen under his watch? Because no government, no potential government knows the exact figures until they get into power. That's not just an election campaign. He's repeatedly refused to answer whether he will make that commitment to Wales. He told us in March that he wouldn't make a specific commitment to HS2. Why are you kicking that can down the road? Do people not deserve that answer now? It's such a big issue. It's absolutely true that you can't know the state of the books until you win the election at a UK level. The difficulty is, if you make one spending pledge after another after another, you know as well as I do, a different task is set for a Labour opposition to the current UK government on whether your plans add up and what that then means in the necessary business of having a different government with a different set of values and a different approach to partnership. That I think is important. If you look at the work that Lisa Nandy started and now Angela Reiner is taking on board, there's a clear narrative about an alternative UK Labour government having a different relationship with regions in England and the nations of the UK as well. Instead of the UK government deciding for people what will happen, cutting across established elected bodies, whether those are the regional mayors in England or the national governments here in Wales and Scotland, a different approach to partnership with power is genuinely decentralised. There's a very different conversation and a specific commitment we've had on former EU monies not being determined by a UK central department that will overwrite and decide on local plans, but actually the Welsh government decided in partnership with people here in Wales. So there's honesty around the offer on a different partnership and of course when an election comes, I'll expect to see more specifics in terms of a UK Labour manifesto and working with a UK government that has a very different set of values about the sort of UK we could and should be. Thank you. Finally, we've now got Lauren Phillips from Business Live. Hi, you mentioned in your opening statement about securing Welsh steel. In terms of the deal to decarbonise Tarte steel and the Potalba steelworks, the unions have called it a bad deal due to the number of job losses and they've said they do not support switching to an electric arc furnace model. I just wondered, do you agree with the unions that other decarbonisation methods should be explored? Well, as I said in my statement in the centre of last week, the Welsh government's view has been that we should maintain more than one technology option. We've always been clear that we want hydrogen to be a part of the future. That requires the UK government to be prepared to invest in it as well for it to be a real option. You're seeing some that happen in the Netherlands where it's a possible option for the future. It also depends on the lifetime for the blast furnace assets as well. Now this is part of a negotiation that is taking place between trade unions and the company. And so the job loss figures that I heard the Welsh Secretary David Davis talking about, I thought was very unhelpful when he started quoting large numbers because actually there's a negotiation taking place. No definitive decisions have been made. The proposed deal, as you'd expect, is one where there's an outline of a deal and conversations are now taking place. And the trade unions are very clear that they want to see a different future with as many jobs and as much opportunity for steel making in Patalbut as possible. And that's really important for the opportunity that I set out in offshore wind, for example. We need to know how much steel can they make, what type of steel can they make, how much of that can be deployed in the turbines that are going to take place off our shoreline. And all of those will matter for the businessman that Tata have for the future. So I fully expect that each side will set up its position and they'll have to sit down and talk and negotiate to try to find a way through. And we'll be part of those conversations. But what we have never done is we've never broken a confidence in the conversation we have either with the trade union side or indeed with the company, which is why it was so disappointed that the UK government chose to exclude us from those conversations. Thank you. And from the conversations that you've had with Tata Steel, can you give a time frame of when these electric arc furnaces will be operational? And what specific capital expenditure will the Welsh Government be providing to help for Talbot carbonize and secure the Welsh steel in Wales that you spoke about? So I think the company have been on record. They're talking about a time frame of several years. I think they're talking about three years-ish outside. But a lot of that depends on the planning process. It depends on them getting grid connections rights to improve infrastructure. It depends on procuring electric arc and getting delivered on schedule. So they'll have an outline about when they think that technology could be introduced or that we need to come on the back of a plan and a final plan and proposal. And the capital support is part of the agreement they've reached an outline with the UK government. The Welsh Government hasn't been asked for any capital support. What we have always been asked and prepared to do is to invest in the skills of the workforce because you do need to have a workforce that is able to undertake all the different jobs that constantly reinvest in those skills. Now that's what we'll carry on having that conversation about what that might mean for us. This is a really significant national employer. It's the highest business rate pair in Wales is Tata Steel in Talbot. So actually what happens there matters to all of us. So we'll carry on having a grown-up conversation with all parties about what we can do and our understanding of what the end plan is will be really important for all of us. And it's why, as I've said on a number of occasions, a generally grown-up conversation with the UK Government is so important. Cemi Bannock's approach to date has been to exclude the Welsh Government in a way that I don't think gets any of us to where we need to be and it doesn't serve the best interests of the company or the families that rely on it. I've been promised a conversation with Michael Gove and I look forward to that happening but it does require different parts of the UK Government to be aligned in the same direction. And to see the Welsh Government as partners, not competitors in this big strategic choice, not just for Wales but for the UK as well. And I hope that that will lead to a genuinely sensible and pragmatic decision that families across Talbot and beyond will recognise and indeed all of us will recognise in the strategic interests of both Wales and the UK. Thank you all very much for the questions. I look forward to seeing you and answering questions again at some point in the future. Many thanks.