As if you didn’t already know, last week Labour and Plaid Cymru announced a co-operation agreement in up to 50 policy areas. The full agreement is available here (Cymraeg – pdf; English – pdf).
The agreement will last three years and guarantees the Welsh Government will be able to pass their budgets during that period.
It’s not a formal coalition and is similar to previous budget agreements. Plaid Cymru won’t have ministers and neither will they be expected to back Labour in every Senedd vote.
As Labour doesn’t have a majority in the Senedd, it’ll add a bit of stability and certainty to decision-making in those areas where both parties have agreed to co-operate.
If you’ve been on Twitter the last few days you could be forgiven for thinking this is the most important development in Welsh political history. It’s not, but it’s significant enough to take a closer look; and it needs a closer look because it’s perhaps not quite as transformational as the puff pieces suggest.
- Establish a National Construction Company (Unnos) to build more council and social housing.
- Set targets to increase public procurement from Welsh companies.
- Establish a National Energy Company (Ynni Cymru) to expand community-generated renewable energy.
- Commission an independent review of flooding during 2020-21 and invest more in flood management; seek additional powers to address climate change including powers over the Crown Estate.
- Establish a National School of Government.
- Commission work to understand future public finance needs.
- Improve the teaching of Welsh history in the new National Curriculum.
- Several measures relating to the Welsh language: protecting Welsh language place names in the built and natural environments; supporting the Cymraeg 2050 goals, introducing a Welsh Language Education Bill; reforming – and extending the application of – Welsh language standards; investment in Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.
- Support the devolution of welfare administration.
These clauses lean more heavily towards the 2021 Plaid Cymru manifesto. They’re all a form of “nation-building” to an extent.
Adam Price has argued for a school of governance for a while as a move to improve the civil service, while there are some other things in there Plaid Cymru have long argued in favour of. That includes (as you might expect) additional measures relating to the Welsh language, increased domestic public procurement, improvements to teaching Welsh history, some sort of investigation/inquiry into flooding and additional devolved powers over natural resources and welfare administration. That said, it’s optimistic to think that any additional powers will be devolved to Wales any time soon.
Of the two proposed “national” companies, the most important one is the energy company. Smaller-scale community-based energy generation (particularly small-scale hydro) is something we’re not taking proper advantage of – perhaps because it’s not profitable enough for the main utility companies to get involved in and requires a lot of money upfront. There have been problems with business rates relief in this sector too; hopefully the deal can lead to a lasting solution.
I don’t see what a national construction company brings to the table. While Wales has a terrible record of building new social and affordable housing, it’s not necessarily down to the lack of construction companies. I’d imagine some of the smaller Welsh-based businesses that already do this kind of work won’t be happy. It’s something the Senedd looked at in detail during the last term.
What we all need to realise is that sticking “national” in front of something doesn’t automatically make it good. The National Infrastructure Commission was one of the conditions of the 2016-17 Labour-Plaid compact and they’ve produced one report in four years.
