Shadow Social Justice Minister Mark Isherwood has made fresh calls for the Welsh Government “to give voice, choice, control and real power to the people in our communities”.
Responding the Statement by the Minister for Social Justice, ‘Wales: A community of communities’, in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood asked the Minister to respond to a number of reports, with findings including “that Welsh communities are the least empowered in Britain”, and “people in Wales feel increasingly less able to influence decisions affecting their local area”.
He said:
“Speaking here six years ago, I referred to the Bevan Foundation 'Communities First—Next Steps' document, which found that the Welsh Government's £500 million Communities First programme did not reduce the headline rates of poverty in the vast majority of communities, still less Wales as a whole, and that a new programme should be co-produced by communities and professionals and not be directed top-down, i.e. by local authorities, that it should be based on a clear theory of change, building on people's and communities' assets, not deficits, and that local action should be led by established community-based organisations with a strong track record of delivery, which have significant community engagement. Did the Welsh Government accept the findings of these and other similar reports, and, if so, where is the change and how is this being monitored?
“How do you respond to the Carnegie Trust’s statement, that the Enabling-State approach is about recognising that 'government, alongside driving the performance of public services, should enable communities to do what they do best', where communities 'are best-placed to bring a wealth of local knowledge and collective energy to the decisions that affect them'?
“What consideration have you given to the January 2022 Wales Co-operative Centre discussion paper, 'Communities Creating Homes', which stated ‘Wales is trailing other nations in the UK when it comes to community ownership rights’, adding that the policies in Wales do not offer ‘quite the same empowerment as enjoyed by communities in England or, particularly, Scotland, as they either focus solely on assets and facilities owned by public bodies or necessitate the direct involvement of a public body to implement the power’, rather than co-production.
“What consideration have you given to the February 2022 Institute of Welsh Affairs 'Our Land: Communities and Land Use' Report, which found ‘that Welsh communities are the least empowered in Britain’, and community groups in Wales told them ‘about an arbitrary, demoralising scenario with little real process for communities to take ownership of public or private assets’?”
He also referred to the Building Communities Trust research findings that ‘people in Wales feel increasingly less able to influence decisions affecting their local area’, and to the £27 million the Scottish Government is investing in a Communities Fund over three years, with over 100 initiatives developed by local people, aiming to tackle community poverty, asking the Minister “what, if any, action are you taking to support similar projects developed by local people in Wales?”.