Speaking at today’s Welsh Conservative Policy Forum in Llandudno, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has criticised Labour’s failure to strengthen the performance of the North Wales economy, which he said “has been telling”.
He said despite the Welsh Government having now launched four economic strategies since 1999, Wales’ economic performance has continued to stagnate.
Noting that in 1999 the value of goods and services produced per head of population (GVA) in Wales was 72.4% of the UK average, he said:
“Although Labour had subsequently abandoned its goal to grow this figure to 90% by 2010, it had shrunk to 71.0% by 2015.
“The West Wales and the Valleys sub-region, including four North Wales Counties, is still bottom across the UK, at just 64% of the UK average. Even Flintshire and Wrexham have seen their GVA fall from almost 100 per cent of the UK GVA level to just 84%, whilst GVA in Anglesey has fallen to just 54%, the lowest level in the UK.
“Yet this Welsh Labour Government only gives Anglesey the 11th highest level of local government revenue funding per head of population out of 22 Welsh Local Authorities, with Conwy 15th, Wrexham 18th, and Flintshire 19th.
He added:
“Claims by the Labour Welsh Government that it has played the “cross-border leadership role in developing proposals with partners for a North Wales Growth Deal” are laughable.
“It was the UK Government that announced in its March 2016 Budget, that it was ‘opening the door’ to a Growth Deal for North Wales and that it would be looking for the next Welsh Government to devolve powers down and invest in the region as part of any future deal.
“The UK Government encouraged local partners in North Wales to prioritise their proposals – which is precisely what they did when they published ‘the Growth Vision for the Economy of North Wales’, calling for the devolution of powers by the Welsh Government over employment, taxes, skills and transport, stating that this “would boost the economy, jobs and productivity, create at least 120,000 jobs, and boost the value of the local economy from £12.8 billion to £20 billion by 2035”.
“People in North Wales look South and conclude that different set of rules are being applied to different parts of Wales.
“Rather than taking leadership, Labour has been dodging our Party’s leadership role in calling for North Wales to receive a range of new responsibilities from Welsh Government.
Mr Isherwood also referred to the fact that across the UK, the proportion of people in absolute poverty is at a record low, with 600,000 fewer people in absolute poverty than when Labour left UK Government in 2010 – but Wales is lagging behind, and that after 18 years of Labour Welsh Government, new data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of children in long-term workless households in Wales increased last year, whilst decreasing in the other UK nations.
Regarding Carwyn Jones, Mr Isherwood said “I have long been calling on this First Minister to end his prophecies of doom and gloom over Brexit and provide the people if Wales with words of confidence and optimism needed to lead the Nation to success. His only tactic is to promote confusion over devolution in order to blame the UK Government for the abominable failings of his own Labour Welsh Government”.