THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

A number of thoughts crossed my mind in relation to the proposed Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Government which emerged on Monday. Politics my old man periodically said, sometimes when I was listening, is about the art of the possible, and along with that thought, Harry S Truman said that it was amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care about who gets the credit. 

While the devil obviously lies very much in the detail it also lies very much in the actual delivery. That said the proposed Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Labour Government offers real opportunities to get things done and to change peoples lives for the better as well as to boost our nations economy and infrastructure. 

The proposals that have been outlined include:

National construction company – Establish Unnos, a national construction company, to support councils and social landlords to improve the supply of social and affordable housing.

Net zero energy company – Work towards the creation of Ynni Cymru, a publicly-owned energy company for Wales, over the next two years, to expand community-owned renewable energy generation.

Procurement – Explore how to set meaningful targets to increase Welsh public sector procurement from the current 52%. As a first step, we will carry out a detailed analysis of the public sector supply chains and promote the purchasing of made-in-Wales products and services.

Local tourism levies – Introduce local tourism levies using local government finance reform legislation.

Building safety – Significantly reform the current system of building safety, which has allowed a culture of cutting corners to the detriment of public safety. We will introduce a second phase of the Welsh Building Safety Fund.

Property and Fair Rents – Publish a White Paper to include proposals for a right to adequate housing, the role a system of fair rents(rent control) could have in making the private rental market affordable for local people on local incomes and new approaches to making homes affordable.

Second homes – Take immediate and radical action to address the proliferation of second homes and unaffordable housing, using the planning, property and taxation systems. 

• Actions being planned include a cap on the number of second and holiday homes; 

• Measures to bring more homes into common ownership, a statutory licensing scheme for holiday lets;

• Greater powers for local authorities to charge council tax premiums and increasing taxes on second homes. We will explore local authority mortgages.

Childcare – Expand free childcare to all two year-olds with a particular focus on providing and strengthening Welsh-medium childcare.

Public transport – Ask Transport for Wales(TfW) to explore the development of transport links between North and South Wales, including how to protect potential travel corridors on the west coast of Wales. We will continue to press ahead with Metro developments to improve connectivity and encourage people to switch to public transport. We will ask TfW to work with local authorities in North West Wales and the Welsh Government to develop plans for an integrated transport system.

Media financial support – Fund existing and new enterprises to improve Welsh-based journalism to tackle the information deficit.

All good stuff, it think that it would be well to remember that this is in no way a coalition; Plaid Members won’t be part of the Welsh Government. As the agreement states Plaid will appoint a designated lead member for the agreement and committees made up of Welsh Ministers and designated Plaid members to reach agreement on issues covered by the Co-operation Agreement.

I do sometimes wonder, even with the slow steady growth of devolved powers even within our deeply flawed devolutionary settlement, just exactly what the elected representatives of Labour in Wales have been doing since 1999? And why they appear to be so bereft of ideas that they need ours… 

Mind, as they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so in the short term I can live with Labour in Wales masquerading as Plaid lite, as long as the above actually gets done.