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Work Programme (Wales)

The hon. Lady has obviously not had the same conservation with the FUW that she had with NFU Cymru. I must say that, in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, if there was one single thing on the shopping list that I was asked, when elected, to do for agriculture, it was to get rid of the Agricultural Wages Board. Everyone thinks that it is outdated and that it provides no back-up and comfort for people in the agricultural industry, and I support those farmers who championed its removal. If the hon. Lady thinks that the future of agriculture depends on the preservation of an outdated wages board, I think that I have answered her question. Let me deal briefly with tourism and bureaucracy. Throughout the coastal area of south-west Wales, there is frustration that, where progress is tantalisingly within grasp, bureaucratic planning hurdle after bureaucratic planning hurdle prevents businesses from being able to grow and expand in a way that will enable them to generate economic activity and thus employment opportunities. I have an awkward relationship with the Pembrokeshire Coast national park. Each time I mention it in Parliament, I am bombarded with a mixture of love and hate. I shall repeat my argument about national parks: they should be a vehicle to economic growth, not an obstacle to economic growth when it comes to the planning system. Another example of a major employer in the area is RWE npower and its nearly complete power station in Pembroke, which is now held up as a consequence of the apparent inability of the Environment Agency to grant it a licence to operate. It is now beginning to cost a significant amount and, worse still, as each day goes by, messages are beginning to be sent out to large inward investors such as RWE that perhaps Wales is not the place in which to invest and that there may be other places where bureaucratic hurdles are lower. Surely that is not an encouraging position to be in. My third point is about infrastructure. What good news it was to hear that the main line from Paddington to Cardiff was to be electrified and what might follow a few years after that. How disappointing it was to hear the former Secretary of State rubbish that, as though it were some sort of negative announcement, whereas we all—even those who will not be immediately affected in west Wales—know that it was nothing but a positive announcement. Faced with a four-and-a-half hour train journey from here to Port Talbot later this afternoon, perhaps Wrexham to Haverfordwest might also be on the cards. What good news it is, too, about broadband. I have one word of caution: I am a universal broadband enthusiast—