Given the evidence that the Welsh Affairs Committee heard yesterday from the joint chair and chief executive of Corus that the Government have been on notice of huge redundancies since the beginning of last June and that he has met the right hon. Gentleman is aware, because he has followed the discussion, that a package was offered to Corus, but was turned down. We have had this discussion in the House before. Corus was simply not interested in the package. Newport will suffer severely from Corus's decision, but it is a resilient town that will start to fight back now.
Friend is right.
Great strengths exist in Newport which will see it through the difficulties that it will face over the coming weeks and months. He makes an important point about the valuable role that an urban regeneration company can play. In his announcement in Cardiff this morning, the First Minister will outline that that is very much one of the options that he wants to pursue with the local partners in Newport and in that part of south Wales. It is the Government who have been in charge of economic policy for the past four years. Before he denies that, it comes from his Department's expenditure report published two months ago.