Dai Havard

Labour Party | Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney

Ambitions for the Future

Soon after being elected, four other newly elected Labour MP’s and I commissioned a major policy study for our Valleys. The Merthyr and Rhymney Express Editorials at the time said, “our MP’s have strengthened the case for some serious investment”.

The study ‘Ambitions for the Future’ has proved a major contribution to policy making and actions in the National Assembly for Wales. The latest example is the welcome speech by Assembly Economic Minister Andrew Davies AM saying, “I entirely agree with the Bevan Foundation report on the Heads of the Valleys....The Valleys - particularly the northern end of the Valleys – need a proper strategic plan for efficient use of massive public investment”. His comments are exactly in line with my call for a Heads of the Valleys Strategy, similar to that in practice along the M4 corridor.

Major players in any such strategy are our Local Authorities. We have seen that on their own Local Authorities are often too small to take on strategic policies. That is not from want of ambition but is something we must address. The Local Authorities working in partnerships with the WDA, the voluntary sector, community enterprises, Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies (ASPB’s) and the private sector - to better spend Local Regeneration Fund and other monies - is the opportunity which Andrew offers to help.

The report I commissioned at the start of my ‘watch’ in Westminster has so far proved useful in informing the social, economic and transport policies of the Assembly and is feeding into investment decisions by UK government departments. But I have no illusions about both the size and length of the tasks we have to re-build our communities. A great range of issues were identified in our report, along with suggestions of how to address them and there is still much work to be done. Not all the necessary decisions are controlled by Westminster but our report and the responses to it, show that the development and better governance of Wales, lies in practical work not sterile discussions about further constitutional change.