50,000 NEW APPRENTICESHIPS

Rather than promising nothing and delivering even less – as per the current trend for Westminster governments and Labour administrations in the Bay – politics at a very basic level should be about making deliverable public commitments. This is why Plaid is right to commit to a landmark investment in 50,000 new apprenticeships for young people in Wales over the next five years. These 50,000 extra apprenticeships can be funded with Wales’ share of the UK apprenticeships levy, which is worth £150m each year. A Plaid government will be committed to ensuring that no young person in Wales is not in education, employment and training while between the age of 16 and 24, and in order to improve prospects for the next generation. At the moment 12,200 young people between 16-18 years old in Wales – one in every 10 - are not in education, employment or training, which most people will agree is far too many. Apprenticeships can offer an equally valuable route into employment as university degrees, and is committed to securing parity of esteem between these two paths in future.

HELP WELSH STEEL WORKERS

Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards has accused the UK government of singularly failing to protect the Welsh steel industry from market volatility and called on the Government to implement measures such as an employer’s national insurance contribution break for West Wales and the Valleys to support against the impact of job losses. 

Following an urgent statement in the House of Commons, Jonathan Edwards MP said,

“Today’s announcement is a devastating blow to the workers and communities of Port Talbot, Llanwern and Llanelli. The steel industry supports thousands of workers across the region, with Tata Steel contributing around £3.2 billion annually to the Welsh economy.”

“The UK Government has singularly failed to protect the steel industry from the volatility of the markets, despite repeated warnings. Artificially cheap steel is being dumped every week from countries such as Russia and China, drowning the UK market and undercutting Welsh-produced steel.”  

“The dumping of Chinese steel is one of the biggest contributors to this crisis. But the UK Government has done little to help the flailing steel industry at home, choosing instead to promote China’s bid for market economy status which would further decimate our steel industry.”  

“Ensuring market fairness for our steel industry should be a top priority for the UK Government. It should be pursued with the same drive as we saw when the banks were bailed out in 2008.”

"The UK Government should also be pressing to implement measures such as an employer’s national insurance contribution break for West Wales and the Valleys. This area is one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in Western Europe and contains the steel plants at Trostre and Port Talbot. Measures such as this would support against the impact of these job losses and provide a boost for the area."

“Plaid Cymru has put forward constructive proposals to save the steel industry in Wales and called on the Welsh Government to urgently consider all options, including taking a temporary stake in Tata Steel to protect workers and guard this key industry, a backbone of the Welsh economy, against these challenging economic conditions.”           

“So far the Welsh First Minister has chosen to ignore these calls, including those made by his own party leader, choosing instead to treat Welsh steelworkers as pawns in a political blame game between the Welsh Government and Westminster.”

“Whilst the Tories and Labour refuse to step up to the plate, Plaid Cymru will press both the UK and Welsh Government to do all they can to protect the jobs of our steel workers.”

PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE

Bank closures often by stealth have become a fact of life for many communities across rural and urban Wales – on January 11^th HSBC announced that branches in Ruabon, Chirk, Amlwch and Menai Bridge will close in April. Back in June 2015 Natwest announced plans to close 11 branches in north Wales in September (St Asaph, Denbigh, Corwen and Llangollen in Denbighshire, as will the branches in Abersoch, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Tywyn in Gwynedd and those in Abergele and Rhos-on-Sea in Conwy, Buckley in Flintshire and Rossett in Wrexham).

This is nothing new, at the end of October 2014 Lloyd’s announced that it would close 150 branches (7% of its 2,250 branches) and shed some 9,000 jobs (the bank has incidentally already shed 43,000 jobs since the largely bank driven financial crash back in 2008).  In October 2014, Vince Cable, the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills was apparently going to write to UK banks to demanding that the banks commit to keeping ‘the last branch in town’ open. Sadly was probably a little late as a growing number of communities in Wales, which already have no bank (28 as of December 2015), and the forty-seven which only have one bank, as noted by the Campaign for Community Banking Services.

The problem of closing banks affects all parts of Wales, while it is more readily identifiable in rural communities; but it also affects our urban areas as well – inconveniencing both personal and business customers. Bank closures proportionally hit older people harder as they may have problems with access to regular public transport. Age Cymru also noted that having a local bank that was convenient for older people was "vital" for ensuring they did not become socially isolated and that older people were at increased risk of financial abuse because of the branch closures.

Locally in Newport there has been a stealth-like closure of local high street banks -Caerleon’s HSBC branch in Backhall Street (closed on 2nd November 2012) – despite a campaign to save the small town’s only bank from closure, which had gained the support of hundreds of people who signed a petition against the closure.  HSBC had already closed the next nearest branch to Caerleon, on Caerleon Road, in St Julian’s (which was closed June 2011) – so much of listening to their customers. 

While Lloyds in 2011/2012 was in the frame for a raft of closures, HSBC had already systematically closed branches across much of Wales - Presteigne, (which closed on Friday 9th March 2012) despite over 500 people signing a petition against the closure), and Blaenafon, in Torfaen (which closed on the 11th May 2012) despite over a 1,000 people signed a petition against the closure of what was literally the last bank in the town). The excuse was that both banks had seen a significant decline in the numbers of customers using their services and the branches were no longer commercially viable.

Campaigners against bank closures rightly claim that businesses in an area where a bank closes suffer and that residents (especially the elderly) who are reliant on public transport to bank in a nearby town are disadvantaged. Just for the record HSBC had closed six branches in Wales between September 2010 and December 2011, including Llandysul, Ceredigion, and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in Powys.

The company has closed 17 "under-used" banks in Wales (since 2009) in both urban and rural areas. HSBC, Barclays and the rest have been quietly closing small rural banks in recent years, and NatWest and Barclays have also reduced bank-opening hours. The British Bankers' Association says more customers now go on-line and banks must examine branch-running costs. 

Despite the spin (about the growth in on-line banking and it’s use – if you have no choice what else are people going to do) this is about nothing more than cutting running costs, the banks have little (or no concern) for their relatively unprofitable personal customers or the concerns of their local business customers or our smaller communities. As has been noted by the US Senate, some banks have other more pressing interests than those of their domestic customers like helping to launder money for drug dealers, dictators and terrorists, so much for being a local bank. 

Local banks are good for the high street and local communities, they help to promote vitality and vibrancy and make it easier for local businesses to operate.  Local businesses to a degree benefit from the existence of local high street branches by picking up passing trade from bank customers. Once local bank branches close, the impact will be felt locally especially by older residents and local business owners who have to trek further and further to pay in their taking and the subsequent drop in passing trade – this situation has been aggravated by the demise of many building societies. 

It is of course important to remember that one result of the demise of the regional banks was the rise of the big 4 banks which led to the growth of the reckless casino banking and cheap credit that brought about the financial crash. When you factor in the ruthless Post Office closure programme that has been pushed through by the then Labour Government, and the Con - Dem coalition government prior to it’s privatisation of the Post Office which in turn was preceded by the rapid floatation and rapid demise of most of our building societies you can clearly see how we got here - sorting the mess out is not going to be easy.

A GREEN BELT FOR WALES?

There is a need for a Welsh equivalent to Green belt, to fringe our urban areas, to help focus out of town and fringe of town developments, not to mention helping to protect green spaces in and around some of our urban areas. It's worth noting that 'Green belt' is a useful planning tool, which was introduced for London in 1938 but then ended up being rolled out to England as a whole by a government circular in 1955 but not to Wales.

The original idea was that the opportunity to develop green belt which would allow local councils to designate green belts when they wanted to restrict urban growth.  The idea worked and worked well, as by 2007, Green belt covered something like 13% of England (around one-and-a-half million hectares) which despite the best efforts of previous Conservative and New Labour Governments it is still relatively well protected both by normal planning controls and against "inappropriate development" within its boundaries.

Wales only has one patch notional green belt, and that lies between Cardiff and Newport, Scotland has seven and Northern Ireland has 30 - each has its own policy guidance.  The preservation of green spaces aside, it comes down to planning permission, which can be a touchy subject, especially when a development (whether for commercial, housing or energy development) is controversial or the final decision is made against the wishes of local people by a fairly distant and indifferent authority.

It's pretty obvious that we lack a coherent national strategic development plan for Wales judging by the half-baked way local unitary development plans have been put together over the years. A number of which are focussed on housing developments, which have done (and will do) some pretty serious damage to our environment in the process.

In the south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Torfaen (not to mention in and around Cardiff) the last twenty five years has seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which has never aimed to fulfil local housing needs. As a result the infrastructure along the coastal belt between Chepstow, Caldicot, Rogiet and Magor is struggling to cope with existing developments and this is well before the projected expansion of housing on and around the former Llanwern site kicks in.

The north of Newport has now effectively been linked to the south Cwmbran - something that has brought little material benefit to the residents of either urban area but has contributed much to traffic congestion. Similarly linkng Cwmbran with Sebastopol will bring little benefit to local residents. Even if eventually housing is built on the land just exactly how much of it will be affordable to local residents?

Now the National Assembly should know better and act accordingly, the institution is supposed to have sustainability enshrined in its actions, but, at times you really have to wonder, especially when it comes to the impact of some of the proposed developments on our communities. We need to protect the green wedges around and within our urban communities – because once developed they are gone for good.

The problem caused by a lack of protection to our Green wedges, etc is aggravated by the fact that what one generation of elected officials (and council officers) envisages as a green wedge, green lane, etc is often seen by later generations of elected officials (and council officers) as either prime land for development or a nice little earner to help balance out the books - this means that there is a lack of stability and a long term vision for many of our urban areas.

If the National Assembly took the long view and created Welsh Green belt land with legal and planning protections then, we might go some way to calming things down when it comes to development planning and also manage to introduce a more long term sustainable democratic element into the process. This is something that could be accomplished by creating Welsh Green belt land, as part of the process we also need an urgent and open debate into the planning process in Wales - something that has been long overdue.

The Westminster government (in England) refrain over the next few years will be about getting planning officers "off people's backs" with a relaxation of current rules. When they talk about ‘people’ they actually mean developers. In true Spiv fashion ‘for a limited period, people are able able to build larger extensions on houses (up to eight metres for detached homes and six for others). Shops and offices will also be able grow to the edges of their premises as Plan A (harsh Public Sector Cuts) unravels and a note of desperation creeps in Westminster ministers seek to boost the economy.

These sounds good; it seems very reasonable save for the fact that somewhere amongst the smoke and mirrors the plan will reduce developer’s obligations to build proportional amounts of affordable housing and avoiding flood risk will go out the window. Not that long ago, a matter of a few months, the previous Westminster government rewrote the entire planning framework (for England) despite some fierce resistance from countryside campaigners. Now Westminster ministers want further changes to planning rules (in England) in an attempt to boost house building and revive the economy.

Not wanting to be left out, the Labour in Wales Government in Cardiff has also pursued major changes to planning rules in Wales aiming to ‘tilt the balance in favour of economic growth over the environment and social factors’. This decision may be aimed quite specifically at overturning those few occasions of late when our Local Authorities have rejected some developments (often at the behest of local residents) rather than putting economic needs ahead of economic and environmental benefits and will do little for sustainable, flood free development to deal with local housing needs let alone preserve our green spaces.

SIMPLY HOLDING US BACK

Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts has drawn attention to the disparity between the UK Government’s intention to devolve further energy powers to Wales and the insufficient capacity currently available on the National Grid to accommodate new energy generation projects.

Liz Saville Roberts MP has called on both the UK and Welsh Governments to urgently ensure grid capacity is upgraded, so that efforts to increase energy generation in Wales, including renewable schemes, are not prevented from being implemented.

Under the Draft Wales Bill, energy schemes of up to 350MW would be devolved to the National Assembly, but there is currently no control over capacity where transmission is in question.    

Speaking ahead of questions to the Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change tomorrow (Thursday 07.01.16), Liz Saville Roberts MP said,

“Plaid Cymru has repeatedly called for power over major energy projects to be devolved to the Welsh Government, with a particular desire to increase Wales’ renewable capacity, such as tidal schemes.

But as things stand, the UK’s ageing National Grid network is known to cause transmission problems for new energy projects.  

Given the UK Government's intention to devolve further energy consenting powers to the National Assembly for Wales, it’s vitally important that the Secretary of State works with the Welsh Government to ensure Grid capacity is upgraded and efforts to develop new energy generation projects are not held up by capacity issues with the National Grid in Wales.

Community energy groups wishing to generate renewable energy are prevented from doing so by the extortionate fees they are charged to upgrade the grid.

We require a concerted effort from both Government and energy providers so that potential energy generation schemes don’t fall foul at the first hurdle. Plaid Cymru is committed to an energy plan that is green and that can power Wales’ economic renewal and meet our global obligations in combatting climate change, but to do that we require the infrastructure and energy capacity which we are currently lacking.

Plaid Cymru is committed to making Wales self-sufficient in renewable electricity by 2035 if we form the Welsh Government. The Party has pledged to publish its route map to 2035 within 100 days of forming the next Welsh Government in May.”

FLEECED FOR CHRISTMAS!

The January 2016 increase makes the Severn Bridge toll one of the most expensive per kilometre; this hinders economic growth and punishes commuters, businesses and visitors. The tolls are quite simply a tax on jobs, a tax on businesses and a tax on commuters. 

In 1966, it cost 12p per car to cross the bridge (around £2 pound in today’s money) it now costs £6.60 per car. The concession holders have been fleecing us for as much as they can get for as long as they can with little but warm words from Westminster to restrain or regulate them. On the matter of the Severn Bridge tolls over the years Westminster has simply failed.

We used to hope that the tolls would eventually be removed, possibly when the concession came to an end  - currently the franchise should end in 2018. However, in December 2014, the UK Government admitted that the tolls could be maintained for potentially for another NINE years (potentially until 2027) to recoup its costs on the Severn Bridge crossings after they return to public ownership, according to information obtained by Plaid Cymru.

In a response to a Freedom of Information Act by Plaid, the UK Highways Agency, said:

“Severn River Crossing (SRC) is entitled to collect a defined sum from the tolls (£1,028.9m  in July 1989 prices) and the current forecasts indicate that this sum will be recouped in 2018. 

“After this time, the crossings will be handed back to the Government. No decisions have been made regarding the future of the Severn bridges.  From this point onwards, government has the right to recoup its own costs from the construction, maintenance and management of the bridge until 2027.  This would be for costs that fall outside of the scope of the current concession for example costs incurred for cable corrosion work. 

“Based on a continuation of current arrangements it is expected to take 1-2 years to recover this money, however, the exact nature of that regime has yet to be determined.”

The Highways Agency has listed spending on work on main cable corrosion on the first Severn crossing as  £5,272,000 between 2010-11 and 2014-15. Then in the following three financial years the project spending costs will be another £4,767,000 from next April through to 2017-18.

Back in 2012, Plaid Cymru submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Transport seeking details of any correspondence between it and the Welsh Government on the level of tolls since May 2011, the last Assembly elections. In its response the Department of Transport merely listed emails between the Highways Agency and the Welsh Government advising of planned increases in tolls for 2012 and 2013. An FOI request revealed that there was no other correspondence between the Welsh Government and the Westminster Government. 

In 2012 a report for the Welsh government suggested that abolishing the tolls would increase traffic by an estimated 12% - equivalent to about 11,000 vehicles a day – and that businesses and commuters forked out around £ 80 million pounds a year crossing the Severn bridges.

http://wales.gov.uk/about/aboutresearch/econoresearch/completed/severntolls/?lang=en

In October 2010, Professor Peter Midmore's independent economic study of the Severn Bridge tolls which has recommended that the revenues should stay in Wales, once the crossings revert to public hands. This study of 122 businesses was commissioned by the Federation of Small Businesses revealed that the tolls had a negative impact on 30% of firms in South Wales, this compared with 18% in the Greater Bristol area.

Severn Bridge Tolls since 1976

While noting that the economic impact was not substantial for most, the 2010 study found that transport; construction and tourism-related companies reliant on regular crossings suffered increased costs and reduced competitiveness. The 2010 study found that Welsh businesses were unfairly penalised by the tolls and concluded that the money should be shared with the Assembly Government and used to improve Wales’ roads and public transport.

The general political consensus to do something about the tolls is nice but somewhat vague on the details. Based on their record in at Westminster I would not hold my breath in anticipation of any action on the Severn Bridge tolls. Labour (New and not so New) in power at Westminster from 1997 to 2010 did nothing. The Conservative and Liberal Democratic Coalition when in power at Westminster from 2010 to 2015 did nothing. Likewise the now unrestrained Conservative Party currently in power at Westminster will also probably do nothing

In 2018 the franchise will revert back to Westminster and the Department for Transport - what concerns me is that this income may prove too useful to let go. The ominous silence from the Westminster on the fate of the tolls should concern to us all of us. I think that it is perfectly reasonable for the Department For Transport (and the Westminster Government) to clearly state what it intentions in relation to the Severn Bridge tolls.

Plaid Cymru wants the transfer of powers (to Wales) and the tolls initially reduced to £2, something that could have a considerable impact on businesses and the economy. For simple clarity the ownership of the Severn bridges should be transferred to the National Assembly in 2018, and that decision needs to be made sooner rather than later and preparations for the transfer need to begin as soon as possible.

IT’S BROKE – TIME TO FIX IT!

Rail fares have risen (1.1%) today; something that will directly impact on regular and occasional rail travellers, at a time when they can least afford it. 

At present rail fare increases are determined with a calculation based on RPI (retail price index) – a system that has attracted repeated criticism from respected economists and rail travellers alike. 

Passengers and commuters should not be hit in the pocket because the Government is intent on clinging onto a broken and outdated system.

For 2016 the rail fare rise was relatively small as a result of low inflation but at some stage inflation will return to normal, and the RPI based rail fare calculator will hit rail passengers hard as they are exposed to the substantial annual increases. 

A much fairer way of calculating fares would be to use the CPI (consumer prices index) that is consistently lower than RPI. The UK Westminster Government already uses CPI to calculate its liabilities such as social security.

Plaid Cymru believes in the public ownership of railways, and the full transfer of powers over railways, including the transfer of full funding for railway infrastructure, to Wales. A Plaid Government would work to devolve Network Rail and set up a not-for-dividend company in which profits are reinvested into better services rather than used to pay dividends. 

Our priority in Wales must be to deliver higher standards and lower journey times for passengers and commuters in all corners of Wales and invest profits to improve services.