I believe that there are six important policy areas that that should be important in the Senedd elections in May 2021. They are Housing and Planning, Public Transport, Economic Development and Regeneration, the Devolution of control of Policing and Criminal Justice, control of our Water; and Energy. I firmly believe that these policy areas can set the agenda for our nation for the next ten years +
We need to talk about Housing, Labour in Wales is silent on the matter and the other Unionist or anti devolution parties are silent on this issue. For the life of me, I cannot see any positives for Cymru / Wales simply being a simple adjunct to England, or Newport being a simple dormitory town for Bristol. I have never, and never will subscribe to the Severnside agenda, no matter how many times it gets rebranded and relaunched. In our south east, along the coastal belt and in and around Newport and Torfaen (not to mention around Cardiff and Caerphilly) and across Monmouthshire the last thirty years we have seen a significant if not spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which of late has never quite been aimed to fulfil local housing needs.
The other side of the coin, in relation to the pressing issue of Housing, is planning. Our Planning system is shambolic, Here in Cymru / Wales we face number of pressing problems, covid aside, many of our pressing problems are not helped by the inherent problems with our 19th planning system with its out of touch focus on unitary development plans, and the lack of decent affordable integrated public transport, which are all part of the problem we face. Other than being an enabler to help with social and economic problems and the implementation of solutions, our Planning system is simply part of the problem.
Another pressing problem that afflicts many of our communties, right across Cymru / Wales is that of redevelopment. Redevelopment is perceived by many people as something that is done to them, rather than by or for them. I have lived in Casnewydd / Newport for 43 or 44 years of my life - like many people in the Port I have watched my home town / city get redeveloped to death. With the redevelopment companies moving in hoovering up the cash and departing. Newport’s 19th century Market which has served the city well, through good and bad times and two world wars, is to undergo yet another redevelopment. This redevelopment may be the final blow, as most to the remaining stallholders are in the process of moving out and the builders will soon begin work to transform the market into a multi-million pound, multi-purpose centre.
Another key area, where the Unionist Parties are largely silent is that of Policing and Criminal Justice. At Westminster Unionist machinations (with Labour in Wales and the Conservatives working hand in glove in the voting lobbies - or Labour simply absenting themselves or abstaining) has resulted in a strange end result. Our Senedd is quite unique, it is the only devolved legislature within these islands not to have any control over its nation’s police forces. Now it’s worth noting, that control over Policing is devolved to Scotland (effectively since 1945), Northern Ireland, England, London, Manchester and even the City of London.
The issue of Water, in Cymru / Wales should still be more contentious than it is - again the Unionists are as quiet as Church Mice on this issue. On the 15th July 2020, for the first time in our history, our Senedd debated the issue of independence. While most independent observers will note that our devolution settlement is deeply flawed, by way of comparison to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s sometimes shocking when you actually look at the things that we don’t control - aside from Policing, and large aspects of the planning process, significant aspects transport infrastructure development and probably most surprising of all our water resources.
The final key issue is that of energy (both Policy and Development). Back in the 1960's people were actually told that by the year 2000 energy would be so cheap that it would be impossible to bill people for it. That never happened, largely as a result of the ideologically driven privatisation of the energy boards created a privatised (effective) monopoly. Once ‘market forces’ set to work we were left with the big six energy suppliers (a cartel by any other name). With weak regulation - despite some periodic and actually very effective work by Westminster parliamentary select committees - the cartel members have been able to get away with much - mostly at our expense (literally).
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