Recover, Reform, Renew: The Road from Recession
Swansea-based AM Dr. Dai Lloyd has today welcomed Plaid Cymru’s launch of a discussion paper on the economy, emphasising the need to ensure that Welsh communities emerge from the recession with a vibrant and sustainable future.
Launching the paper entitled Recover, Reform, Renew: The Road from Recession, Plaid’s leader Ieuan Wyn Jones said that his party wants to build on the important steps taken in Government in Wales to help families and businesses and to stimulate further discussion on what needs to be done at all levels of Government to aid economic recovery.
The Plaid leader also hit out at Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his planned £500 million cuts to the Welsh budget. Mr Jones said that Mr Brown’s plans show a ‘worrying disregard’ for the Welsh economy and that now is not the time to be starving Wales of the money needed to aid the renewal.
Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones AM said:
“In government, the efforts of Plaid ministers are ongoing to ensure that the Welsh economy gets the right sort of help during this downturn. We are also looking to the future and at how we can ensure that Wales’ economic position is far more robust and sustainable in the long term.
“The immediate priority must be to set the right conditions for economic recovery – in Wales that must be through effectively targeting support for businesses, through maintaining the skills base of our workforce and through providing the help we can to those facing redundancy. What Wales needs from Westminster is a stimulus package to allow us to bring about that recovery as quickly as possible. This document outlines a proposal for a UK wide package from which we in Wales will receive a £3 billion share from Westminster. The funding could be targeted at saving jobs and businesses, providing further help for low income families and cash to protect public services.”
“Yesterday Gordon Brown finally reluctantly accepted ”collective responsibility” for this crisis, and yet when it comes to the reforms and initiatives needed during this time his response has lacked both ambition and a sense of urgency. Yet he has made time to plan cuts which could amount to half a billion pounds from Wales’ budget in 2010. Today I repeat my call for Mr Brown and his Labour government to rethink and consider the damage this would cause.”
Plaid’s National Chair John Dixon added:
“This document is an excellent starting point for what should be an inclusive national discussion on the action that needs to be taken to support the Welsh economy at this time. This paper sets out what we are achieving in the Assembly and what we think needs to be done in Westminster and Brussels. It is time for serious policies such as a cap on energy prices reduction in VAT on electricity and fuel prices as well as overdue reforms to the taxation system.
“One thing is for certain; we can not afford to leave this sort of planning to those who built up the current economy which is unbalanced and dependant on the huge financial sector in the City of London.”
