 Yn ymgyrch, Borodau a Croeso. Rhaid i chi'n gweithio i mi ar y cwmbrans cymrydau i'r prydau i'r prydau i'r cyfnodau sydd yn ffordd, i'r ffairau a'r grŵnau i'r economi yw yng Nghymru. Rwy'n meddwl am y cyfnod o'r ddweud o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau, ond rwy'n gweithio'r ddau o'r ddau o ddau o'r dddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o'r ddau o ddau o'r gweithio. Rwy'n meddwl am gwybod a'r lefanaeth o bobl o'r ddau o'r ddau, o hedge o'r gyffredinol ffysgol a oeslwyddiad o'r ddau o'r lludio'u flaeniol, a o hesbio yn gallu heb yn dechegos oeslo ac oedde nhw ei hanfod allan. For local authorities in England and devolved nations, it forces stark choices about how to meet the growing demand for services with an ageing society that is still recovering from the pandemic. The Chancellor also decided to allow those with non-don status to go on not paying their fair share of tax in the way that ordinary working people do. It was a choice based on priorities and values. For Wales, this backdrop brings with it the greatest pressure for the Welsh budget since devolution began, a situation made worse, of course, by the loss of £1.1 billion in promised EU replacement funds. When working with less, priorities matter more and so the values. Today I'm setting out four priorities that will help to deliver against the direction set out in our economic mission. Priorities that bring together our ambition and values. Priorities are designed to guide our actions through the headwinds that we face. Priorities that are wedded to our goal to help more young people to feel confident in planning ambitious futures in Wales. The first priority is for a just transition and green prosperity. There is no greater challenge than the climate emergency and no single greater economic opportunity than net zero. In an era of low business investment, we must use the net zero imperative to make longer term partnerships with the huge opportunities that our natural resources, geography and skills present. The bespoke Welsh Freeport model exists to accelerate the creation of green jobs powered by working people from Port Talbot to Ernest Morn to Milford Haven. It is also clear that all businesses need to adapt for climate change. Our new green business loans offered by the Development Bank of Wales are helping smaller and medium businesses to lower their energy bills for good. We will focus our energy for investment that shortens supply chains, reduces emissions and creates the jobs of the future. The second priority is to provide a platform for more young people to plan ambitious futures in Wales. I dislike the term brainjain. It is at once insulting to the genius and talent on show in Wales and unnecessarily hopeless. I'm passionate though about the job of building an attractive offer to a younger workforce that is so crucial for Wales's tax base, to our well-being and our sense of connection. The young person's guarantee sends an important message about how we value the contribution of young people in tough times, including the help that we deliver for new entrepreneurs. Our increasingly adventurous visitor offer helps to sell the balance you can strike when you work, live and study in Wales. The growth of our tech, cyber and creative industries are opening new doors for attractive careers closer to home. We've invested £3 million in the Cyber Innovation Hub and our support for the thousand tech jobs that PWC are bringing to Cardiff is based on a project to bring down barriers for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. A Wales that is confident, kind and open will be more attractive to younger people and business than a Wales that chooses culture wars, division and aggression. The third priority is to create stronger partnerships for stronger regions and our everyday economy. We want to work with regions to agree a smaller set of priorities, including joint working to boost the case for UK investment in projects in areas including nuclear, advanced manufacturing and tech. I'm clear that we need to plan for the potential return of EU replacement funds to Wales. In the teeth of the tough economic headwinds we face, I will work with regional leaders to focus on the areas where we can have the greatest impact. The fourth priority is investing for growth. Our ambition for Welsh industries has helped to attract hundreds of millions in new investment for Newport semiconductor cluster in this year alone. Our partnership with companies like Siemens and Rocket Sciences has also secured new jobs in life sciences and gaming from Gwynedd to Cardiff. The wave of economies embracing industrial strategy fits with the Wales offer that we can make even in difficult times. We will position ourselves as a consistent partner in that journey and fight for the long term investment that it is attracting. Businesses have already suffered the outcomes of an experiment in the opposite direction. Trickle-down is bust. As we focus on that ambitious future, I want girls and young women growing up in Wales to feel empowered about their role in leading the industries and services of the future. That's why I'm calling on businesses to do more to remove arbitrary barriers to progress. More businesses can choose to go further to improve gender balance in the boardroom, which is a clearly visible issue. Some businesses are already making progress in this area. Airbus, for example, set a name to achieve a 10% female workforce in north Wales by June 2022. That will be up from just 1%. Marketing campaigns, more flexible shifts, redefined transferable skills, among other measures, have seen the broad and site beat that target with 18% of the workforce now made up by women. Businesses that reflect a modern Wales will be the ones that draw on the talents a more diverse workforce brings. On Thursday I'm hosting an economic summit in Ebbw Vale, which will bring together more than 150 businesses, trade unions and wider stakeholders to focus on what we need to do to deliver on our priorities. I'll also visit the social enterprise elite clothing solutions, which is putting our priorities into practice, creating opportunities for people who struggle to find employment. The business, along with partners in Flangevny, Trioche and Newtown, have recently been awarded the contract to make transport for Wales new uniforms. From design to manufacture and branding, the uniforms were completely made in Wales, creating jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged people, older workers, older workers, young people and single parents. As we buy the products that our services rely on, I'm proud that we are providing dignity and opportunity for people who deserve no less. There will be tough choices ahead, given the harm caused by the figures in the autumn statement. More than a decade of austerity, low growth and chronic economic centralism. A sense of priority must mean that we also say no to bits of investment that fail the test on growth, fair work, place and value for money. And I recognise the disappointment that can cause. But a sense of priority also means backing proposals that are built to last, with partnerships that improve outcomes and living standards. That is how we will use our priorities to deliver on our values. I'll now take questions from journalists. We're joined by two journalists in the room and a number on the screen. We may need to go to the journalists in the room as the screen has just gone off. Can I just check if the journalists can see and hear us? No, we'll start with the two journalists in the room. We'll start with Claire Bode from Biomedia. Thank you Minister. You talk about creating and protecting local jobs, but you only have to look to Port Talbot where potentially thousands of jobs are going to be going with the community having no answers at the moment. Local groups have told us that this is going to have a similar impact to the death of the Welsh mining industry in south Wales. What's being done to protect those workers in that community? I think the starting point is we don't accept that a thousand jobs will have to go. I've regularly said it's not helpful for politicians to give large figures about the number of jobs that I guarantee to go and actually no decisions have been made. The choice that is available is how to get to a different future to decarbonise steel production, but still the need to have a steel making asset of significance in south Wales, which is a UK wide issue. But also it's a test for what a just transition looks like. I don't think a just transition looks like offshoring those jobs at different parts of the world, and indeed we need to understand the carbon impact of steel produced in different parts of the world and then shipped into Wales for rolling. So there's an ongoing conversation between Tata, the company and trade unions about what the future could look like. The Welsh government stands ready to support a just transition to invest in the skills of workers, but the UK government are the key partner together with the company and business and trade unions as well, because they need to make a choice about what future they're prepared to invest in. Now, I think the last time I was here and the last time I was in the Senate chamber, we talked about a specialist consultant's report that's been provided and that is forming discussions between Tata and trade unions themselves. I look forward to understanding the progress of those. We're due to have a transition board meeting at the end of this week to understand what further progress is being made or the nature of those conversations. But the starting point is I don't accept that a thousand jobs will go and that would be a really significant problem if that were to happen. But I'm much more interested in making the case for investing in a different future where the jobs will still be there on a long-term basis with decarbonised production in the medium term. Thank you. And today, obviously, we heard the news from the report from the Children's Commissioner for Wales about racism within Welsh schools. You know, some of the examples, you know, racial slurs becoming normal in schools, you know, some people's refusing to sit next to classmates because of the colour of their skin. And when racism is reported in these schools, people's feeling like it's not being taken seriously. One people saying school uniform is more important than tackling racism in their school. You know, as a parent, how does this make you feel to hear this? And as a minister, what are the UK government going to do to tackle this and to ensure that racism isn't allowed to fester in our schools? Also, from the Welsh government's point of view, we're very clear that racism isn't acceptable in our society, certainly not acceptable in our schools. And actually, the changes we're making to the curriculum I think are important to this, learning about black history is part of Welsh history. It's not as important for my son. It's important for every child to understand our history. And that's what's in all about the parts we're going to be really proud. We think we are on the right side of an argument, but also that the people in Wales haven't always been on the right side of every part of social progress. From my perspective, it is always upsetting to hear people describing a difficult or unacceptable experience in school and equal to understand that not every school gets it right. And our challenge is in not just saying it's unacceptable, what do we do in terms of equipping professionals in our schools to recognise and to deal with that and how to take seriously the voice and the view of a child who is saying that has happened. And how do you then make sure that other children understand the impact of that experience? And so the learning isn't just about the academic side of what takes place in school. It is actually about how we help people to get ready for the wider world outside it. I've had experiences directly myself in my own school life, and of course I'm concerned for my own son, but I'm also concerned that other people's children have a better experience. So I don't shy away from the fact that there will be racism in our schools today. I am more optimistic about improving that for every child in Wales and what they will say about the kind of country that we want to be and can be. Thank you. I think we have people back on the screen and we'll then come back to Will. So we're going to try to go to Kemlin Davies from BBC Wales, Borodaw Kemlin. Borodawd, thank you Minister. Yes, can I get your response please to the latest developments around Tata? Because we now know that unions at the Steelworks are split over an alternative plan to de-cap, urbanise the site. You might have now publicly confirmed that they don't support this plan that's been prepared by Syndex, but GMB and community do support it. How concerned are you that that split could make it more difficult to limit job losses at Putt Albert? What my understanding is that all three trade unions are looking for longer term investment that does not see the sort of extraordinary job losses that could otherwise take place if there is no blast furnace production until alternative steel making methods have been delivered. So I think in broad terms there isn't disagreement and I think the danger always is that you want to report and to magnify issues rather than to magnify the division or the potential nuance between people rather than understanding and amplifying the agreement. We want to see the conversations that take place between trade unions and the company take place on a meaningful basis with an openness to understand what alternative options there are. And as I said out in response to the first question, it's really important that the UK government are partners in that because the amount that they're prepared to invest and their expectation for what that investment delivers is really important. You've already seen for example at British Steel that they're going to continue with blast furnace steel production until they've created alternative electric arcs as well. So it really does matter that that conversation is a serious one with meaningful engagement and as I say I think there is more in common in the trade union position is my understanding than there is that can be seen as a nuance between them. Either way that does not mean that either the company or the UK government should walk away from the conversation that still has to conclude on what the future could be. And I think the Welsh government is very clear that we want to see the maximum number of jobs maintained for the longer term. And we want to see a credible plan to decarbonisation that does not offshore Welsh jobs and does not offshore emissions that will simply take place in a different part of the world. But isn't it damaging that not all three unions are completely behind this plan and what is your view of this plan? Do you yourself support the Syndex plan or do you have an alternative idea? Well I haven't seen the Syndex plan. It's a matter for discussion between the trade unions and the company. And as I said I think it's unhelpful for politicians to give either figures on job losses that will take place when those discussions have not taken place or to give a definitive view on what the end answer must be because the company and the trade unions are negotiating. There is though definitely a role for government in how we enable not just the talks and given the space for the talks to take place but the sort of support that can be available for alternative means to both decarbonise the way that steel is produced but not at a cost of significant job losses and not at the cost of simply offshoring our emissions themselves. So as I say my understanding is there is more agreement between the trade unions and what they want in terms of investing in the medium term on the path to decarbonisation and not sacrificing lots of Welsh workers jobs. So I think we need to take it, take it that that's the position of trade unions. They're still having their conversations and negotiations with the company themselves and we need to give them the space to have that without looking to amplify potential nuances into major disagreements when that may well not be the case. Diolch yn fawr, Cymru. We now have Mike Griffiths from ITV Wales. Good morning, Baradar Mike. Good morning Minister, hope you can hear me okay. Going back to the four priorities you're outlining today, under the one of stronger partnerships between regions, there's a suggestion of smaller set of priorities for growth and for jobs and for investment. Is that an acknowledgement that the previous approaches we've seen, perhaps I've always had those priorities in the right places? No, it's a recognition that as we have less money we need to focus in even more on where we see distinct strengths. We've already started some work with some of those regions to look at having a shared approach to what that can look like, to make sure that the Welsh Government and each of those regions understand what each of us can do. There will be times where regions can make their own choices without the Welsh Government, times where the Welsh Government needs to be the decision maker and other times where we need to work together and it's about wanting to maximise the opportunities to do that and as I say, having clarity in the number of priorities where we think we can be really successful with each of those regions and that again is a conversation between partners that needs to take place. If you go back to when city and growth deals started, actually there was a much greater level of optimism of what the money could do, the value of that money has reduced as inflation has increased, as it's affected different sectors of the economy, as economic growth hasn't moved on in the way that all of us would have wanted it to. So it's a sensible approach to make sure we understand what our partners can deliver. I mean again refocus on where we think there are the main priorities for us to work collaboratively together to deliver the sort of jobs that all of us want to see in Wales. Thank you. In reference to the Welsh Government's previously announced target for people, employees to be working from home, is that a figure that some 30% which is the target, is that a figure you're still working to? Bearing in mind that clearly fewer people commuting is having an effect on the receipts being taken by Giantsport for Wales, by bus companies too at a time when they were all struggling? No, so the ambition to have 30% of people working from home or working remotely is still there, and actually we're seeing a number of changes in the world of work that are promoting that shift in work. So the pandemic really accelerated the change that was already taking place, and it meant that not only do people have to work from home, but actually a number of people work successfully from home either permanently or on a hybrid basis with some time in the office. Now that's relatively common now for certainly for office-based jobs, but it also I think shifted the trust in the workplace that employees would carry on working at home and working productively, so a number of sectors are seeing actual productivity gains in doing so. That still means that there will be times when people need to commute into larger centres. It means that there'll be, so Cardiff and Swansea for example, in terms of the number of people that would have travelled into the city centre, they're looking again at what that means, what the offer is in the city centre, but people will still come into city centres, and there'll be still things you can only do in those city centres themselves, but also different opportunities for businesses in smaller towns where people may be spending more of their time as well. So that's the balance here and understanding how that shift works, and actually we're still optimistic. We will see a return to patternage for buses and trains, but some of that is still a cultural shift about people's confidence to return to use public transport in the numbers that we still want them to. And of course part of our ambition to get more people into public transport is to make sure that it's a choice that is a real one so people don't need all the time to use their own cars. And actually we're seeing in a number of sectors that lots of younger people generationally don't have the ambition to own their own car. They don't see it as part of the life that they need to have. So actually the different measures we're taking in public transport and active travel are really important to help enable that shift that is already taking place in younger generations, and I say that knowing full well at the number of silver hairs that are now on my head. But thank you for your question Mike. We'll now move to Will Hayward, who is considerably younger than me, and Will is in the room. Good morning Will. Thanks Minister. Why do you think Wales has such high levels of poverty compared to many other parts of the UK? It's an historic challenge about post industrialisation. It's about our ability to see the continued progress that was being made through the late 90s and early 2000s on reducing poverty and seeing the economy grow. It is largely a factor of the fact that the economy has stalled in the last 13 years, austerity has not worked. It has hollered out public services without growing the economy. And as I said in my opening remarks, you don't need to take my word for it, the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation has set out that those are things that are happening around us. And all of the measures that we have taken, investing in childcare, our flying start provision, all those things make a difference, but the challenge is the headwinds in the opposite direction. And the biggest one of those has actually been the deliberate choices to take money out of benefit support for working families and what that means for your ability to support children and where the work actually pays. Because it isn't just the number of children growing up in less wealthy households, it's that lots of those people are in households where parents are working. And it's one of the reasons why I think the term fiscal drag, the freezing of thresholds for income tax, it doesn't just affect middle income earners who will find some of their money going into higher tax bans. It's a really big problem for lower income earners as well. If you earn £13,000 you'll be paying income tax. More of your money will be going into tax. So it's undone a large amount of progress on what it means for less well off workers. And that has a direct impact on our least well off families. Staying on that subject, how confident are you that if Labour win the next general election and Welsh Labour win the next end of election, but by the end of that term, this issue of poverty will no longer be the case, it won't have those discrepancies to Wales and other parts of the UK? Well if you look at Wales and other parts of the UK we have comparable levels of child poverty with other regions within England. And actually if you look at England as a whole actually, London and the southeast are very unlike the rest of England. It's actually a large part of the imbalance in the UK. It's one of the few areas I agree with Boris Johnson, is actually that London and the southeast have been motoring ahead economically and lots of investment gets crowded in. And actually the challenge is that imbalance is how the economy works and outcomes for people. So part of our challenge will be both the rebalancing of the economy, which is why it's important for us not just about post EU funds returning to Wales. But it's also we have an interest in significant and real terms partnerships between regions of England and the UK government and what that then means for Wales and Scotland as well. So the way the economy works, the way that power is distributed, the way that choices and your levers to do that will really matter. And also I think we will see over a whole term of a UK Labour government a different approach that does not punish working people and working families who are supported in work by the way our benefit system used to make work pay. And that's the challenge for us as well. The choices that were made post 1997 had a real and undeniable impact on lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. And I am confident and optimistic that a future UK Labour government working in partnership with us here in a Welsh Labour government can do the same again. Thank you, Will. We now finally got Dan Wilson, who is joining us online. Borodra, Dan. Borodra minister, thank you. The Governor of the Bank of England said yesterday that the outlook for the UK economy was the worst that he'd ever seen. Some conservative voices perhaps unsurprisingly had accused Andrew Bailey of being pessimistic given the announcement or the promised investment from foreign businesses that was announced yesterday as well. Are they right? Is Andrew Bailey being pessimistic and if so, why then should we have faith that your plan that you've announced today will drive the growth that you would like to see? So, if you look at not just what the Governor of the Bank of England said, but also in the autumn statements, the OBR, the independent body created by George Osborne, their independent forecast is that prospects for growth in the UK economy as a whole have halved in the coming period. Now, the challenge then is if you want to see growth take place, not just events like the investment summit, so I'm not saying the investment summit is a bad thing. Actually, you want to have events that promote the opportunities to invest in the UK, including here in Wales. The Welsh Government is an active partner in doing so that's why I was in Germany last week as well. But you also want to see investment in different parts of the economy. Public services are part of that. Hollowing out public services does not promote growth in the economy. It's also why you want to see investment in infrastructure. It's also why we've been so disappointed at, for example, the semiconductor strategy and the resources around it about not having a proper strategy for manufacturing and the sort of support that the UK Government needs to provide as a partner that actually helps to unlock investment from the private sector. If you go back to growth deals, when the growth deals were provided, the value of the money was more than it is today, but also it was a deliberate choice to recognise that investing from the Government could help to unlock more private sector investment. We're not seeing even that ambition take place with the current iteration of the UK Government. And actually the part of the reason for this, and again this comes from direct conversations with businesses and other investors, is the level of churn at a UK Government level. Not just multiple Prime Ministers, Rebecca Evans is now on yet another Chief Secretary to the Treasury she has to deal with as the Welsh Government Finance Minister. But churn and that uncertainty is unhelpful for delivering the stability and the growth we want to see. In contrast in Wales, there is stability in the way our Government functions. And me setting out these four priorities today, you can be confident they won't be torn up by a different person in six months time. So the consistency we provide is part of what our offer is, but also the clarity in what our ask is. And actually that responds to calls on both businesses and trade unions. And I look forward to delivering on this and I look forward to not just dealing with the opportunities, but the honesty in the things that we don't think we'll be able to do without taking away from the fact there needs to be some ambition for the future. Thank you. And obviously back to the plan itself, we obviously spoke to elite clothing solutions yesterday who were one of their big passions, which is obviously included in this plan is about driving improved diversity and opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled people. Given set that against the backdrop of what the Chancellor announced last week in terms of reforms to welfare benefits, particularly the tens of thousands of people could lose out on incapacity benefits. He would argue that is about also driving diversity in the workplace and ensuring that people are contributing where possible. What do you say to that? I think the starting point is that people generally here at work want to work, and there's lots of ambition to want to work. So you need to move away from this idea that actually you need to punish people into wanting to work. There isn't really a great deal of evidence that conditionalities it's called. You need to take that if you take money away from people, they'll be more likely to search for work. There's not a lot of events that works at all. I think actually that's about whether other people are prepared to continue supporting a welfare system, whereas actually it doesn't help people to go into work. You need to be more positive in actually helping people to address skills needs, to address other barriers to work like childcare, like investing in infrastructure and transport. And that actually is much more likely to help people in to work. That isn't the approach that's being taken. So, you know, the challenge is on, and there's different things moving in different directions to UK level. So having more work coaches can be helpful. But if you mandate that, and you say that if you don't engage with those people, then you'll lose your benefit. Actually, that is moving in different directions at the same time. And often people need support to be able to properly engage with those opportunities. And it recognises that disabled people themselves want to work, but they will often need different support to help to get into work opportunities, then to keep them in work as well. Actually it's in our interest for that to happen, not just from an ethical point of view, but actually from the way that our taxes are used and that person actually having not just the ability to pay taxes, but the dignity that comes from being in work. So, I want more disabled people in the workforce. I just don't think that you can plan is going to do that. And again, you don't need to take my word for it. There are plenty of disabled groups and independent commentators who say that the Chancellor's measures are not likely to lead to more disabled people having positive and fulfilling experiences in work. Never mind the numbers who are actually in work as well. Thank you very much for your questions. I welcome your question and thank you to all journalists. I look forward to speaking to you again in the not too distant future. Many thanks your time.