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Work Programme (Wales)

Thank you, Mr Caton. As I attempted to make clear, I apologise to the Committee for my late arrival, which was thanks to one or two transport problems, but I will not delay proceedings any further by dwelling that point. In Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, there are 1,285 jobseekers—up precisely 28 on this time last year, in an area that is 40% dependent on public sector employment. In Pembroke Dock, 249 vacancies were advertised yesterday at Jobcentre Plus. It has been an uneven season for one of our major employers, the tourism industry—it is okay in some parts, with secondary spend good and primary spend not so good. The picture in agriculture, another major employer in the area, has been a bit lumpy, and it would be fair to say that most of the constituency’s retailers find the present climate particularly challenging. However, as I entered the Chamber earlier to hear the end of the speech by the right hon. Member for Neath, I wondered whether I had stepped back in time. I say to him and other Members that the small and medium-sized enterprises in west Wales—I can speak for nowhere else, obviously—were nothing like as heartbroken by the 2010 general election result as he would have us believe. I cannot help wondering whether to trust the view of the right hon. Gentleman, a former Secretary of State for Wales, or the view of the many small and medium-sized businesses that are struggling to improve and grow in challenging conditions. If they are listening to the debate—not many will be, I confess—they will have been frustrated by one or two of the speeches, in particular the one given by the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd, who was revelling in gloom and almost expressing disappointment that things may ever get better. Businesses in my area would have been profoundly irritated by that, just as they are by the sometimes over-complication of the challenges ahead. It is on that point that I will make a short speech, using five simple examples and five simple questions that the Minister may wish to comment on, if he has time. I will illustrate my points using situations from my constituency. First, a popular refrain is that of credit flow, and I use the example of a local manufacturing company in Pembroke Dock called Ledwood engineering, which is known to both the Secretary of State and the Under-Secretary of State for Wales, both of whom have engaged in dialogue with it. Ledwood is a great local business employing hundreds of people in that area of west Wales, down on the river Haven. The company has been going for 30 years and has provided huge economic activity for our area. It is currently bidding for northwards of £30 million of work; if it is lucky enough to be successful in those bids, 160 people will be put on the payroll in the area. That would be a massive jobs boost, not only for Pembroke Dock and Pembrokeshire, but for the whole of Wales. The only thing standing between Ledwood engineering and success in the tendering process is an improvement of its own infrastructure that should cost somewhere between £2.5 million and £3 million, but can Ledwood find anybody who is prepared to look in its direction from the lending or banking sectors at the moment? No, it cannot. Has the Welsh Assembly come to its rescue, recognising the incredible value that would be brought to the area? No, it has not. I put that example to the Secretary of State and the Minister of State as one in which a simple solution to a relatively simple problem would bring us and Wales huge prosperity and growth. The second issue is bureaucracy, which has been touched on by other speakers. My area is one of significant agricultural activity. Farmers in west Wales are frustrated that some of the bureaucratic obstacles that have been stripped away successfully by the coalition Government in England are not being stripped away with quite as much vigour and enthusiasm in Wales, putting Welsh farmers at a disadvantage to their English counterparts.