Seven years into devolution, the benefits of bringing government closer to the people of Wales are clear to see, across the economic and social spectrum.
Buoyed up by the success and stability at UK level, Welsh performance in 2006 continues to outstrip the economy as whole. Unemployment was 7.7 per cent when the Assembly came into being, 30 per cent in excess of the UK figure. Now it is down to 4.7 per cent, with the UK figure at 5.2 per cent, and has been below the UK figure for most of the past two-and-a-half years.
Latest figures (2004) show that gross disposable household income has grown by over a quarter in Wales since devolution took place in 1999. That is faster than in the UK as a whole at 23.6 per cent. Indeed, of the nine English regions plus Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, only the Eastern Region of England has grown faster than Wales. Gross disposable household income per head in Wales is now at its highest level, relative to the UK average since 1996, and Wales improved its relative position in each of the last four years.
Thanks to the skill and commitment of the UK Presidency, led by Tony Blair in December 2005, in reaching agreement on the EU budget for 2007-2013, Wales, and especially the two thirds of Wales in the West and the Valleys, will receive the real extra bonus of £1.3bn new funding to continue the job of transformation of our economy. The current round of European Structural Funds is having a real impact across Wales, with £1.5bn committed to 2,745 projects since its inception. Objective One alone has committed £1.31bn to 1,677 projects (figures to 30 April 06).
In social policy, our end-of-year waiting times figures showed that, at March 31, 2006, there were no patients at all waiting more than 12 months for either outpatient or inpatient treatment at any Welsh trust. To give readers some idea of the rate of improvement, at March 31, 2005 there were 13,800 waiting more than 12 months for an outpatient consultation, and 824 over 12 months for inpatient/day-care treatment.
Of course, the vast majority of patients wait nothing like 12 months. About half of all inpatients and outpatients are on lists for less than three months. About eight out of 10 people are on the lists for less than six months. This measure of patient experience on the waiting list has also been moving in the right direction steadily during the past two years. We now look forward to further falls in waiting times by 31 March 2007, when the maximum waits will be eight months. In another part of the health field, we have taken advantage of the new dental contract to create an extra 206,000 NHS patient places this year, with more to follow.
Achievements in health are only one example of
improving public services in Wales. During the past year we reopened passenger services on the Vale of Glamorgan line, over 40 years after it fell victim to the Beeching cuts, and part of a real renaissance in Welsh rail services. In education our school results continue to improve. Nearly three quarters of 11-year-olds achieved the expected levels for the core subjects in combination and 52 per cent of 15-year-olds achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C in the 2004/05 academic year.
More widely, during the past year, the new Assembly Building, opened by the Queen on 1 March, has shown Wales at the cutting edge of sustainable design and construction, using renewable energy systems to reduce running costs by up to half. The building has won the Building Research Establishment’s highest award for sustainable construction. It joins a lengthening list of iconic buildings in Wales – the Millennium Stadium and the Millennium Centre, for example – which have been built on budget and on time. Delivering a new legislature building, a 74,000-seater stadium with a sliding covered roof, and Europe’s biggest recent new opera house/multi-purpose arts complex for a total cost of less than £300m is beginning to give Wales a real ‘can-do’ reputation.
Under Labour devolution is a progressive business, providing powers for a purpose where they are most needed. I look forward very much to being part of this next phase in the evolution of Wales’ exciting adventure in running its own domestic agenda. A can-do country with a can-legislate Assembly – now there’s a combination to whet the appetite.