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Legislative Programme and Budget Statement (Wales)

I am sorry that I gave way, because the right hon. Lady did not answer my question whether she would make a prediction on future unemployment. The decision on Wylfa was made in 1987—the Conservative Government decided not to go ahead with Wylfa B because of the dash for gas. Between 1997 and 2001, the Government stalled the decision and the planning was bogged down. How will yesterday’s announcement on planning impact on decisions on matters such as a new Wylfa B, and who will make those decisions? Will it be the Department of Energy and Climate Change, or the Department for Communities and Local Government? It has a constitutional impact on Wales if an England-only Department makes the decision? I want to see the relevant Department for the sector making those decisions, whether that be the Department for Transport or the Department of Energy and Climate Change, rather than the Department for Communities and Local Government. I will finish on the important issue of broadband. There has been huge investment in the infrastructure for broadband, and the Chancellor made big play of the subject in the emergency Budget, when he suggested that the Government will not go ahead with the so-called landline tax. I believe that that was a fair tax, because the United Kingdom should have universal broadband. I guarantee that if the Government do not invest in the infrastructure, the market will not deliver broadband to regions such as north-west Wales. The landline tax of 50p a month would have provided the investment that private companies were asking for. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government’s alternative proposal—again, I ask the Under-Secretary to respond—is that money left over from the digital switchover, which they estimate will be £350 million in 2012, will be spent on two pilot schemes. I want that to be cleared up, because we could wait decades for fast broadband in north-west Wales. If universal broadband is not provided, places such as west Wales will suffer and will be in the second division. I am concerned that the measures announced in the Budget will mean that we will not receive the investment that 21st century companies want, and I hope that the Under-Secretary will address that. The Budget lays bare the fact that the Tories are reverting to type by raising VAT and inviting mass unemployment, which will hit areas of Wales the hardest.