Rural Economy of Wales

Debate between Chris Ruane and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 28th November 2017 Westminster Hall

[Chris Ruane]

The Minister should know that history. It is a huge amount of money for the whole of Wales—€320 million per year in direct subsidies from the common agricultural policy, with a further €355 million to support rural development.

I ask the Minister, as I have asked him before, to make sure that we have extra funding beyond 2020. Our urban and rural communities have been supported by extra funds from Europe over the past 17 years. We want to be treated as well by Westminster as we have been by Brussels. We have had a big dollop of jam—a big dollop of funding—for Wales. We do not want it taken away and for the jam to be spread thinly across the whole of the UK. We need that funding and the Minister must do his job and make sure that we get it.

On productivity and broadband, thanks to the efforts of the Welsh Labour Government, unemployment in rural Wales in 2016 decreased roughly in line with the Welsh average of 4% and productivity continues to increase. However, productivity in rural communities still lags behind the Welsh average. The Welsh Government recognise that and are helping boost productivity with the “Superfast Cymru” project, rolling out superfast broadband across the country. In an increasingly digital economy, the effects of high-speed internet are really needed in our rural communities. Sadly, Wales’s biggest export has been our young people. There has been a brain drain out of Wales for decades. Superfast broadband offers a chance to stop and reverse that. People want to live in rural communities, especially when they are bringing up families. To do that, they need access to superfast broadband to make sure that they can conduct their digital businesses from areas such as rural Wales.

I just want to touch on the north Wales and the mid-Wales growth funds. I ask the Minister to ensure that the funding allocated to those projects is as great as the funding allocated to city deals in England and Wales.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

If the Minister concludes his remarks no later than 5.27 pm, that will allow Mr Lake time to sum up the debate.

Employment in Wales

Debate between Chris Ruane and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

Bore da! This important debate, with Wales’s finest in attendance, is ably led by Chris Ruane.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Thank you for that great introduction, Mr Hollobone. Bore da! Sut wyt ti y bore ’ma?

I will speak primarily about my constituency and north Wales, but I am sure that there will be interventions and speeches by Members from elsewhere in Wales—although not from any Government Members, because no Conservative or Liberal Democrat Back Benchers are present—[Interruption.] No, here they come. Better late than never.

I will focus on five areas: the quality of jobs in the UK and Wales; the impact of cuts on jobs and employment in Wales—not only the current cuts, but the proposed future ones highlighted by the Chancellor in his autumn statement; the rebalancing of a local economy highly dependent on the public sector; the possible impact if we pulled out of the European Union on job prospects in north Wales especially; and the impact of capital projects on jobs.

On the face of it, employment in north Wales seems healthy, but scratch below the surface and we see a different picture. Wages in the UK have decreased by £1,600 per annum over the past five years. There has been a shift from secure, long-term employment to short-term, zero-hours, part-time working.

Two years ago, the national press highlighted Denbighshire as having the highest level of zero-hours contracts in the UK, although the local authority disputed the figures. Nevertheless, the whole of the UK has suffered from the steep rise in the use of zero-hours contracts. The public sector has had a pay freeze at only 1%, which in real terms amounts to a cut, while the impact on ordinary workers of the casualised employment promoted by the Government is stark. Families cannot plan for their summer holidays, as they might usually do in January, because people do not know whether they will still be in employment in six months’ time.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Ruane]

I am grateful, Mr Hollobone, for the opportunity to speak again.

I will respond to a few points that Conservative Members made. Virtually every Conservative speaker today spoke only about cuts, but the balanced approach to rebalancing the economy means talking about cuts and growth. From 2008, all the indicators up to 2010 were going in a positive direction; when this Government got in, they all went in a negative direction. The cuts are ideological, because the Conservatives believe in cuts. They want a small state; they do not recognise the value of the public sector.

The hon. Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) again used divisive language about public sector pensions and private sector pensions, saying that private sector pensions were minimal. Who was it that promoted and encouraged the mis-selling of pensions to the private sector? It was the Conservative Government of the ’80s and ’90s. Why not raise the private sector pensions up to the level of public sector pensions? Why does the law of the lowest common denominator have to apply?

The Minister mentioned the number of people in Wales who have never worked. We had jobs—quality jobs—in Wales, in the steelworks and the mines, but what happened? Those workers were laid off and put on the dole. Then, when the dole queues started to rise, the Conservative Government in the 1980s and 1990s got worried. They altered the figures for calculating statistics 30 times, and they encouraged those proud miners to get off the dole and go on to incapacity benefit, in order to park up those workers—and, indeed, whole communities —for decades to come. After someone spends six months on the dole or incapacity benefit, something changes inside them; they lose their confidence. That is what happened in those communities. No help was put in place for those proud miners; they were just cut adrift, as political punishment for what they had done.

The Minister talks about the success of job creation in Wales under his Government. He mentioned Jobs Growth Wales briefly towards the end of his speech, but let me remind him that Jobs Growth Wales is responsible for an extra 400 young people in my constituency being employed. Also, there is European funding in my constituency, which I secured for my county of Denbighshire and the county of Conwy in 2000. We have had a quarter of a billion pounds worth of investment in my constituency, and the same in Conwy as well, as a result of that European funding. But what will happen to the remainder of that funding if the Government have their way and pull out of the EU? These are big issues for the electorate to face in the months to come and on 7 May, and I hope that they look carefully at our record and that of this Conservative Government. If they do, they will realise which box to put their x in.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (in the Chair)]

I thank all Members who took part in this important debate on Wales. If they are not staying for the next important debate, I ask them to leave Westminster Hall quickly and quietly, because it is time to get all aboard for a train services debate.