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.
- Set up an expert group to work towards the establishment of a National Care Service.
- Publish a white paper on a right to adequate housing, fair rents and/or rent controls.
- Reform council tax to make it fairer; introduce tourism levies as part of a reform of local government finance.
- Commission independent advice on hitting net-zero targets by 2035.
- Increase access to the Seren Network (for high-achievers) to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Ask Transport for Wales to explore improvements to north-south public transport.
- Develop a new culture strategy; explore the creation of a shadow Broadcasting Authority for Wales; fund existing and new Welsh-based journalism.
It’s worth going through these in a bit more detail as they’re perhaps not what they seem even if they generated headlines.
There’s been discussion around a National Care Service for as long as I can remember, but it’s never been properly explained – just like “integrating health and social care”. Why and how would that improve care standards? Does it mean nationalising the care system to free-at-the-point-of-access or just forming a commissioning body? Would it require new taxes and levies (as has been suggested in the past)? It’s fine to work towards something but it’s another thing entirely to actually deliver it.
A lot of people got excited by the proposals for rent reform, but a white paper isn’t a commitment to do anything; it’s a commitment to publish a white paper. I’m sure all the housing associations and housing charities will welcome another round of seminars and lobbying but it’s unlikely to move beyond that any time soon. Like it or not, there are big obstacles here.
There are big hurdles to overcome too concerning the proposed tax reforms. As I understand it, if the Senedd wants any new tax powers they need to make a request to the UK Government. “Locally-raised taxes” are devolved – and that’s how a tourist levy has been described – but there’s the potential for another intergovernmental showdown or two.
Reforming council tax “to make it fairer” isn’t going to be easy either. It’s a bloody awful way of raising money – we all know that – and it’s not a particularly useful tool for councils. It sounds like it’s going to be another revaluation to me, not something more substantial like a local income tax, land value tax or equivalent – which could be fairer. A request for powers to create a vacant land tax has already stalled in London.
Harking back to the point on white papers, commissioning advice on net-zero by 2035 isn’t a commitment to do anything, it’s a commitment to commission advice. At the current rate of progress, net-zero by 2035 is impossible. It’s also likely to be a very expensive process which would put a lot of the other plans in the agreement at risk.
As I understand it, the whole point of the Seren Network from the start has been to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply to top universities (particularly Oxbridge) or study subjects like medicine and dentistry. If it’s not doing that now, what’s it been doing for the last few years? Has it just been supporting better-off students who attend schools in disadvantaged communities?
In principle, there’s nothing wrong with looking at north-south travel. Please don’t tell me we’re going to waste any more time and energy on the deader-than-disco Aberystwyth-Carmarthen railway project again? As much as I would like to see it happen, it’s not going to unless it’s significantly reworked.
Creating a shadow broadcasting authority sounds an awful lot like “forming a committee” to hold meetings about holding meetings but with absolutely no teeth or mandate to do anything other than issue angry letters. Additionally, there hasn’t been enough scrutiny of where existing money to support journalism in Wales (in both languages) has gone and how effective it is in terms of ensuring impartiality, consistency and quality of output.
