North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has challenged the Welsh Government this week over poor prosperity figures for West Wales and the Valleys, which includes four North Wales Counties, and called for better spending on regeneration projects to give them a boost.
Speaking as the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Mr Isherwood raised the matter in the Chamber yesterday when responding to the Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services on ‘The Valleys Regional Park’.
He said:
“Why is it, do you think, that in the eighteenth year of Welsh Government, when the last official figures were produced, the value of goods and services produced per head of population in West Wales and the Valleys were still the lowest out of the 12 UK nations and regions, despite billions spent on economic regeneration and anti-poverty programmes, with Anglesey bottom, at 52 per cent; Gwent not far behind at 56 per cent; and the central Valleys at 63 per cent of the UK average?
“I hope you will answer that in the context of, for instance, Poland, which began in a similar position on the starting block, but closed the gap, whereas Wales in relative terms has gone backwards.”
Mr Isherwood added:
“You refer to the £7 million announcement of capital funding by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to establish the Valleys Regional Park in the draft budget over two years. I referred to West Wales and the Valleys, which includes four North Wales counties and which includes the areas with the least prosperity - even lower than Gwent, as referred to. So, how do they fit into this picture? Where is their fund for equivalent regeneration? Because, West Wales and the Valleys, under the GVA description, which we're still working under as we're still in the EU, does include four North Wales Counties, and the poorest part is in the north-west.”
Referring to the Valleys Regional Park scheme, Mr Isherwood asked what the Welsh Government will be doing differently this time, to avoid the failures of the past, and questioned the Cabinet Secretary over the Community Tourism Ambassador Scheme.
He said:
“You rightly refer to opportunities for green social prescribing—something we're also very committed to as part of our broader co-production agenda. Clearly, there have been a number of failed schemes to ignite regeneration and growth in the Valleys, from the Regional Investment Fund for Wales, which the Public Accounts Committee said was poorly executed due to fundamental flaws in Welsh Government oversight and governance arrangements, not dissimilar to the 2009 Wales Audit Office Report findings regarding Communities First, which I had asked them to conduct.
“In fact, that only produced a new car park in Neath. Or the Ebbw Vale enterprise zone, which failed to generate any meaningful support to create local jobs. Or the collapse of the Circuit of Wales. How will you therefore be doing things differently to ensure that this investment is not merely a sticking plaster for the long-standing needs of people in that region?”
“This programme has introduced a Community Tourism Ambassador Scheme, which I am personally interested to discover more about. I engage, of course, in North Wales, with North Wales Tourism, which has 1,500 members, and 3,000 if you include those within these membership groups. How will you ensure that this Community Tourism Ambassador Scheme not only engages with the statutory sector and the third sector, but also hospitality and tourism providers, to ensure that all the buttons can be pressed together to mutual benefit?”