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Mr. Nick Ainger (Pembroke): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Hague: I must get on because I have given way a lot. If I have a little time in the next few minutes, I shall give way to the hon. Gentleman, but I must proceed with my speech.
We need to ensure that industry and commerce have the right supply of qualified, well-motivated people. That is why I have published the updates to two important Government programmes: "People and Prosperity: Building on Success", which I launched today and which concerns our agenda for action on training; and the initiative, "Bright Future: Beating our Previous Best", which I launched last week.
I have set the agency challenging targets to ensure that it directs its efforts towards what I believe to be the priorities for Wales. The agency has performed well
against its targets--we have not yet reached the end of the current financial year, yet a number of them have been exceeded. For the current year, I set a target of £650 million of private sector investment to be levered in. So far, the agency has reached £1,986 million. My target of 12,500 jobs to be created or safeguarded has been exceeded, with 13,860 jobs to date.
Wales and the WDA can be justifiably proud of that record and I want the WDA to continue doing what it does best--helping to create new jobs for all parts of Wales. I want more investment and more jobs in those parts of Wales that are still affected by the highest unemployment: parts of the west, north-west and valleys.
We are already doing a great deal to spread the benefits of the investment that has already been made: the Source Wales programme; encouragement to suppliers across Wales to link up with inward investors; ensuring that inward investors look at sites across Wales before they invest; and setting targets for the numbers of jobs outside the eastern M4 and A55 corridors.
The WDA has so far this financial year exceeded its target of 20 per cent. outside those eastern corridors by creating more than 32 per cent. of its jobs outside those areas. I have decided that it is now time to take further steps to ensure that areas that have so far not been the principal beneficiaries of inward investment can share in the growing success of Wales.
First, I will set new and more demanding targets for inward investment outside the eastern M4 and A55 corridors. Although the precise level of those targets remains for discussion, they will be significantly more demanding than the current target.
Secondly, I am asking the WDA, within agreed UK and European limits, to recognise the extra costs of locating in some areas by giving more assistance to companies locating in those areas than to equivalent projects elsewhere. Ultimately, of course, the choice of a location is for the company but, we should make no mistake--it is no accident that companies are coming to Wales. I intend to ensure that companies keep coming and that they come to all parts of Wales. The two initiatives will form part of the policy guidance and direction that I intend to give the agency in the future.
Mr. Donald Anderson (Swansea, East)
rose--
Mr. Hague:
I am spoilt for choice; two hon. Members want to intervene.
Mr. Anderson:
The initiatives are certainly welcome. The Secretary of State's guidance is for the future and critics will say that it is guidance in the very dying days of this Parliament. Even in December, the agency killed a £3 million project for a science and technology centre at Penllergaer, near Swansea. People will ask why. The guidance is welcome, but why is it so belated? The facts have been apparent for years.
Mr. Hague:
There is no need to apologise for the way in which the agency has approached such matters in recent years. It has been extremely important to bring large investments into any part of Wales for which they can be secured. Of course, the company plays a large role in choosing the location.
Now that we have had spectacular success in some areas, it is right to say that we would be prepared to pay more for any given project to go to a new area than to go to an area where a large project had already been established. It would have been wrong to say that in the past, but now it is fair. We should concentrate resources to a somewhat greater extent on areas that have not been the principal beneficiaries of large-scale inward investment.
Mr. Ainger:
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Hague:
This will have to be the last time that I give way.
Mr. Ainger:
I am grateful to the Secretary of State. May I, with my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson), say that the investment is belated but welcome? The Welsh Office has been advised by the WDA that in areas of high unemployment--especially those in my constituency, in south-west Wales and in north-west Wales, such as the Holyhead travel-to-work area--enterprise zones should be re-established as a key marketing ploy. Can the Secretary of State explain why that recommendation has been rejected by the Welsh Office?
Mr. Hague:
We have been over that ground before. The hon. Gentleman knows that the Government's view is that enterprise zones are of assistance mainly where there has been a failure in the private sector property market. They can help in some cases, but not in others. We had little or no evidence that enterprise zones would be of direct help in those cases. As he knows, a great deal of other assistance is available to his constituency and to other parts of west Wales. Greater assistance may be available after what I have said this evening.
The priorities for the future of the agency are clear. I expect it to focus particularly on inward investment and indigenous business growth. Safeguarding and creating jobs in Wales is paramount, although the agency has other responsibilities as well. I shall continue to press on the WDA the points to which I referred this evening, when we meet later this month.
I know that Opposition Members have criticised the budget for the coming year, although at £150 million of gross expenditure and £85 million of Government grant, it is a very large programme. In recent weeks, Opposition Front Benchers have committed themselves to the existing spending ceilings of the Welsh Office for the next two years, while also increasing local government spending and setting up an assembly. Against such a background, they would have little hope of providing the level of resources that I am providing, let alone increasing it. If they can work out how they would provide such an increase, we would be interested to hear about it tonight.
We can all agree on the need to make the most of the agency's success. The chairman, David Rowe-Beddoe, and his team have worked hard to ensure that the agency adheres to the principles of compliance, openness and financial regularity that we expect from public bodies in Wales. They have worked hard at presenting the agency and a successful Wales to the world. The agency deserves the support of all of us in that. It is concentrating on what it excels at--winning jobs and investment for Wales.
Mr. Ron Davies (Caerphilly):
I begin on a note of agreement and join the Secretary of State in expressing my congratulations to the chairman, the board and all the staff of the Welsh Development Agency on having served the agency and the people of Wales well over the years. I especially congratulate the chairman, who had a difficult inheritance. Perhaps I shall return to that.
Although the Bill is specific, the debate has been wide ranging. The Secretary of State reviewed events over the past 20 years. I shall touch on some of those, as history can be interpreted in more than one way.
A number of initiatives were announced by the Secretary of State this evening. I broadly welcome them, as far as I understand them. I shall examine them in detail and apply the critical test by asking what resources will be available to ensure that those initiatives are carried through.
I was particularly interested in the Secretary of State's statement about ensuring that future developments take place outwith the hot area along the M4 corridor between Newport and Bridgend.
At present there is little evidence that the WDA or the Welsh Office has succeeded in getting investment out of that area, or that either of them understands the problems that are already developing, especially in the Newport area, as a result of the skills shortages stemming largely from the failure of the Welsh Office to offer a co-ordinated programme to provide skills or to provide adequate resources for the training and enterprise councils.
The Bill is a technical measure and is largely non-controversial. I put on record my broad support for it. We will assist its passage through the various parliamentary procedures.
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