Speech to Senedd RE Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan

My constituency of Swansea East has been a major beneficiary of Welsh Government capital expenditure.


Morriston Hospital is continuing to receive substantial capital funds to update and expand the hospital, not just for the benefit of my constituents but for the whole of Swansea and the whole of west Wales.


In education, we’ve seen the building of two new secondary schools in Swansea East—Morriston and Cefn Hengoed—based on the same sites as the old schools. Burlais school is to replace Manselton and Cwmbwrla schools is nearing completion. The Welsh-medium school Lôn Las, which my daughter attended, and which was a semi-derelict ex-junior comprehensive school, is now going to be replaced by a whole set of new buildings.


I’ve got three questions for the Minister. Will the Minister commit to continuing the financial support for twenty-first century schools? Secondly, does the Minister agree that capital expenditure is one of the best ways of stimulating the economy?


thirdly, as someone who supports the tidal lagoon—which puts me in agreement, I think, with every other Member representing the South West Wales region—how can the tidal lagoon itself access the EFSI funding that you mentioned?

Press release on Armed Forces Day 25th June

PRESS RELEASE


Mike Hedges AM and Julie James AM are urging people in Swansea to join millions across the country in marking armed forces day by attending the local event on Saturday 27th June at 11AM in Castle Square.

Armed Forces Day has been hugely successful since its launch in 2006 and it is an opportunity to raise public awareness of the contribution made by those who serve and have served in the Armed Forces – from currently serving personnel to Service families and from veterans to cadets. As well as to say a huge thank you for all they do.

 Julie James AM said: “Armed Forces Day is an opportunity for us all to recognise the huge contribution our women and men of the forces make and have made to protect the freedoms we all enjoy”


Mike Hedges AM said this year is a special year. It marks the 100th anniversary of the Gallipolli campaign as well as other battles in World War One, the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo and the 60th Anniversary of the end of the second world war. It is an opportunity to reflect on conflicts past and the lessons for today.”

Speech at the Senedd 23 June Re Austerity and Social Care

Can I welcome the Minister’s statement?


Can I, again, remind people it was the international banking crisis that got us into the mess the country ended up in?


It had nothing to do with the last Labour Government. Austerity is not working. It is stifling growth in the economy.


This, in turn, is reducing the income tax take of the Government and leading to further cuts—an unvirtuous circle. The more people cut, the bigger the problem they have, as they’ve discovered in Greece, though I’m sure that the Conservatives want to blame the Labour Government in London for the problem in Greece.


Whilst the Government has done everything possible to maximise the resources available to support their priorities, this has been done against a background of substantial cuts from Westminster. While areas such as local government and further education are suffering cuts in Wales, they are not at the level of their equivalent bodies in England.


I again note that Wales spends 5 per cent more per head on health and social care compared to England. Does the Minister agree that we want to reduce health demand and reduce waiting times, and to get people out of hospital as quickly as possible, and that spending on social care is the way forward, to make sure that people are kept in their home by social care expenditure, and while they’re in hospital are able to go home and be looked after in their homes rather than staying in hospital for an extended period?




So, does the Minister really believe that the Government’s view of spending money on social care is the right way as opposed to the Conservatives’ view of cutting that along with everything else?

Questions to Leighton Andrews RE Local Government Reform

First of all, can I very much welcome the general power of competence, something that local authorities have asked for for decades? I think that that will be a great step forward. These proposals are very similar to the eight county councils pre-1995. The major differences are caused by the cross-county boundary changes that took place in the 1995 reorganisation. This is what the county councils and county councillors such as Gwenda Thomas and myself were asking for back in 1993 and 1994. I am happy with the creation of West Glamorgan—a county council, as I said, both Gwenda Thomas and I served on pre-reorganisation. 

The challenge for any local government reorganisation is to create a body large enough to provide key services effectively, but small enough to be considered by residents to be local, rather than creating sub-regional bodies. 

I’ve got six questions for the Minister. [Laughter.] I could have taken it to 10, but I stuck on six. If population size is all important, why is Powys left unchanged? Fire and rescue was run by the county councils, and is run by county councils in England. Will it be returned to county council control? Council tax varies, sometimes significantly, between the proposed merging authorities. How is that to be resolved? Will there be a proposal, on the new councils, to set a duty for the new councils to set up area committees? Will councils be merged or closed and then new councils set up? I believe that will lead to external contracts being treated differently, depending on the methodology used. And, finally, I’d produced my own suggestions, based on the pre-1995 smaller district council structure. Did the Minister consider that option?

Speech at the National Assembly Plenary - Public Service Reform

This motion is the first I can remember to discuss public services as a whole, as opposed to dealing with individual service areas. Every Wednesday, one silo after another has been discussed without looking at public services as a whole, so I really welcome this.

For local government, the challenge is to be large enough to effectively run the major services, but be small enough to be local rather than creating a layer of sub-regional government. When I first became active in politics in the late 1970s, the structure of public services in Wales was very different to those we have today. County councils were the basic building blocks of local services, and further education colleges, polytechnics, institutes of higher education and the fire service were all directly run by county councils, whilst services such as probation and health were organised on a county basis with direct county councillor involvement. Beneath the county council were district councils, which provided the bulk of local services, including almost all public housing. Some county councils actually organised themselves—their services—on a district basis; Mid Glamorgan was a classic example of that.

Today, we have a far more fragmented public service, with 22 unitary authorities replacing the former county and district councils, with a proposal to reduce that number back to the original eight or nine—a case of back to the future. Further education colleges, institutes of higher education and the polytechnics of Wales have all left local authority control. The fire service is currently split across Wales into three, and these are controlled by local authority joint boards. Can I say that, for those living in Swansea, being in the same joint board as Machynlleth doesn’t work for us?