Plaid Cymru Leader will this week spell
out his vision for economic and social prosperity for Wales
during a lecture hosted by the Wales Governance Centre in
Cardiff, demanding a much higher level of ambition for Wales to
deliver a fairer future for our nation.
Reflecting on twenty-five years of devolution, Rhun ap Iorwerth
is expected to say:
“Whilst culturally a new sense of nationhood has developed and
there’s been a growing political understanding of the powers that
reside in Wales – especially after our Covid experience - there
remains a persistent underperformance on many metrics, including,
crucially, economic underperformance, a 25-year Achilles heel
which requires addressing and strengthening.
“If we fail in this endeavour, we will fail in our mission to
secure a fairer, more ambitious Wales. Fairness and ambition are
not mutually exclusive - on the contrary - they are intrinsically
linked. Believing in the redistribution of wealth and a
supportive state while simultaneously advocating for successful
enterprise is not an either/or. Both have people at their heart,
and the people of Wales are our greatest asset.”
Speaking of how “fairness and ambition” lie at the core of his
political mission for Wales, the Plaid Cymru Leader will say:
“Prescribing a label to my politics has never been a motivation
of mine. What drives me is getting Wales moving and working
better, where background is no impediment to success, where ill
health is not defined by postcode and where I see no arbitrary
boundaries to what we can achieve both as individuals and
collectively, as communities and as a nation.
“Setting a high bar in terms of ambition for Wales is vital if
we’re to build a fairer society.
“And those two words – fairness and ambition – really are
intertwined in my political thinking. Creating a fair society
should be an ambition for all of us. Collectively. And we
shouldn’t rest until we can look around our communities and see
that no one is being left behind. But ambition in its wider sense
is something I want Wales to embrace. A go-getting Wales, with an
ambition to succeed. Not to tread water or get by. But to
prosper. And to do so precisely because it’s for the common good,
using that prosperity to further entrench the fairness we seek.
Mr ap Iorwerth will set out a series of proposals designed to
boost economic growth and productivity, including setting new
targets for the economy, legislating on fair funding for Wales
and within Wales, and granting the Senedd more flexibility over
taxation.
Speaking about Wales’s historic underfunding, Rhun ap Iorwerth
will say:
“By enshrining into law an Economic Fairness (Wales) Bill we
would rebalance the wealth of the UK, ensuring that Wales gets
what it’s owed and critically what it needs in public investment.
“It would take us away from the hypocrisy of the argument that
most parts of the United Kingdom must live under the iron fist of
fiscal responsibility while others benefit from the trappings of
more spending as a pre-election sweetener.
“Without fairness at the heart of economic decision-making, Wales
will always be hindered in its desire to be the ambitious and
prosperous nation it strives to be.
“Had an Economic Fairness Bill underpinned by an independent
arms-length arbitration body been on the statute book, the
statistical rollcall of shame which highlights Wales’s
underfunding would look very different.
“Between 2001 and 2029 – the Welsh Government estimates that
Wales will have lost out to the tune of between £2.9bn and £8bn
of rail investment alone. It further calculates that the
Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund leaves us over a
billion pounds worse off.
“These are significant numbers. And losing that kind of
investment makes a big difference.”
