Diolch, Llywydd. I also would like to welcome very much the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure. May I take this opportunity to praise the passionate and committed approach to this important area of responsibility that the Cabinet Secretary has always taken?

The Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016 is an important piece of legislation, and I note in the statement that the 2016 Act is rightly praised for providing a range of new or refined tools to give increased protection to our precious historic assets. These historic assets take in an all-encompassing range of Welsh life, and, in my Constituency of Islwyn, the Navigation in Crumlin is an historic, iconic and important Welsh colliery site. It is among the top 10 most endangered Victorian and Edwardian buildings in England and in Wales, and the Navigation contains a number of listed buildings.

I was encouraged to note in your statement, Cabinet Secretary, the new web resource of Cof Cymru—National Historic Assets of Wales. This give owners, occupiers and members of the public free, authoritative information on the description, location and extent of designated and registered historic assets across Wales. I have done some homework and have actually visited this helpful website, and I’m delighted to have clearly been able to see the various listed buildings at the Navigation, which include the winding engine house, fan house, workshops, stores, pithead baths and outbuildings. That’s 11 in total—all of them grade II listed and a significant and historic record for Wales. Would the Cabinet Secretary agree with me that it is imperative that the Welsh Government does all that it can to ensure that these important historic assets tell the story of our nation and are retained for future generations, as highlighted by the historic Memo in Newbridge, now in full and thriving community use? We know that funding demands place great pressure on us all—£1.2 billion swept off the Welsh budget in recent cuts from the UK—and I am heartened to hear of the £250,000 grant from Welsh Government in 2015 for the colliery.

I want to place on record my appreciation to the Friends of Navigation, who are a group of passionate, highly dedicated local volunteers who maintain and manage this site with the aim of restoring the site and buildings, bringing them back into use. This is an aim that I fully share, along with seeing, in the not-too-distant future, the railway station reintroduced in Crumlin in order to open up our Valleys communities.

Cabinet Secretary, how do the principles and purposes of the 2016 Act—a groundbreaking Act, in my view—and the ensuing best principles, guide, safeguard and revitalise our important historic monuments such as the Navigation? It is a colliery site that my grandfather and my ancestors worked within, and which is today a solid but slowly disintegrating legacy of an international, historical, cultural and industrial heritage. Equally, it must play a part in the new Welsh vision for future generations to come.