5. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what contribution the Welsh Government will make to the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal? OAQ(5)0120(FLG)

Thank you for the question. Financially, the Welsh Government will provide a contribution of £503 million to the £1.2 billion Cardiff capital city deal. More generally, we remain committed to working with all 10 local authorities in their collaborative effort to deliver the benefits of the deal across the whole region.

Looking at the transport interchange that’s been identified for the Central Square, which is a crucial part of the sustainable transport strategy for the Cardiff capital region, I wondered if you can put to bed some of the nonsense that the Lib Dems are putting about around demolishing the bus station with gay abandon without any plan to rebuild it, and telling us that there is no money to put in place the new bus/light rail interchange, which of course is absolutely crucial to achieving modal shift, to tackle air pollution and enable people arriving by train to complete their journey, whether it’s by bike, by bus or by light rail. So, I wondered if you can put to bed the scurrilous rumours that have been peddled, that there’s no money for rebuilding the bus station, and tell us what contribution the Welsh Government will make to ensure this crucial piece of sustainable transport jigsaw can be completed by the incoming Labour council.

I thank Jenny Rathbone for that supplementary question. It’s always seemed to me, Dirprwy Lywydd, that Cardiff is very fortunate as a city in having a bus interchange and its main railway station so very closely co-located and to allow exactly the sort of transport nexus to be created to which she referred. The Cardiff capital city deal has, as an integral part of it, a regional transport authority to make sure that the way in which transport runs across the whole of the Cardiff capital region can be co-ordinated and properly put together. I have every confidence that the new bus station in Cardiff is properly planned, properly financed and will provide an excellent service, both to the citizens of Cardiff and to those people from the rest of Wales who come to our capital city.

Obviously, with the local government elections tomorrow, Cabinet Secretary, I very much hope that people will vote Conservative. You will say you very much hope people will vote Labour. But what we do know is what is on the table is a city deal that does need, obviously, all partners working to make sure it is delivered, and, in particular, around the transport solutions that, hopefully, will free up this part of Wales, across the whole of the south-east of Wales. How will the Welsh Government engage and help construct a partnership after the local government elections, irrespective of whatever the make-up is of local authorities, so that there can be real progress on the transport solutions that do sit within the city deal that has been delivered by a partnership of the UK Government, Welsh Government, local authorities and businesses?

Can I agree with the Member that it’s been a real strength of the Cardiff capital city deal that councils of different political persuasions have been able to come together, have been able to agree on a form of decision making that means that they are able to speak with a single voice on matters that are of a more than local significance and matter to people right across the region? That is especially true in relation to transport. The south Wales metro is one of those genuinely transformative projects. It relies on local authorities taking action, it relies on the Welsh Government playing its part, it has £105 million-worth of central Government money dedicated to it, and in order to make sure that we make the very best use of that opportunity, we have to be able to demonstrate an ability to work across local authority boundaries and across levels of Government as well. The Welsh Government will do everything we can, after tomorrow, when we know the new landscape of local government across Wales, to work with those partners to make sure that, together, we can make something very significant happen for the population of this part of Wales.