Mark Isherwood: Thank you. Referring to the Welsh economy, academics at Cardiff Business School reported two weeks ago that Welsh output or gross value added is most sensitive to changes in higher rate tax, any cut in which will always raise tax receipts and any rise will always, quote, ‘reduce tax revenue’. Given that Wales has had the lowest prosperity levels per head amongst the 12 UK nations and...
Mark Isherwood: Welsh Labour’s intention to abolish the right to buy in Wales would deny the prospect of home ownership to tenants, and miss another opportunity to increase affordable housing supply and tackle the housing supply crisis created by a Labour Government in Wales since 1999. During the first three Assembly terms, despite warnings, the Labour Welsh Government cut the number of new social homes...
Mark Isherwood: Yes, please.
Mark Isherwood: Absolutely. That’s the argument I’ve been putting here for over 13 years. As the opening paragraph of the October 2014 ‘Homes for All’ manifesto states, ‘There is a housing crisis.’ This crisis has been caused by Labour’s failure to build new affordable homes, not the right to buy, which has been emasculated under Labour and seen sales dwindle from the thousands to just a few...
Mark Isherwood: Here, two weeks ago, UKIP joined the other parties in agreeing a Welsh Conservative motion moved by me, which recognised that the proposals contained within ‘A Growth Vision for the Economy of North Wales’ offer the basis for improving the economic performance of north Wales and called on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government and the North Wales Economic Ambition Board to...
Mark Isherwood: Could I call for two statements? Firstly on fragile X. Yesterday, in fact, was fragile X awareness day, and, last week, I joined families living with fragile X, a fragile X researcher and the chief officer of the Fragile X Society to walk a mile around Cardiff Bay as part of the ‘fragileXpedition’ of 8,026 miles around the whole of the UK to raise awareness of one of the most common, yet...
Mark Isherwood: I welcome your statement. You say you want to break the cycle and shift resources into prevention and protection and you cite access to jobs, giving people the right skills and support for those jobs, adverse childhood experiences and empowerment—empowerment in communities and empowerment of communities. All of this is something I’ve been arguing for for many years and in recent weeks. I...
Mark Isherwood: As North Wales Police state, a hate crime incident is any incident perceived by the victim as being motivated by prejudice or hate. Although the National Police Chiefs Council have stated that recorded hate crimes increased following the result of the EU referendum, this problem is not exclusive to the post-EU-referendum period. Hate crimes recorded by South Wales Police for the two weeks to...
Mark Isherwood: How is the Welsh Government tackling poverty in Wales? Transferred for written answer by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure
Mark Isherwood: National Grid launched a consultation into the proposed location of pylons and a tunnel under the Menai strait on 5 October, running until 16 December, and I’m sure you’ll join me in encouraging residents to respond to that consultation. But how do you propose to address concerns expressed by the Pylon the Pressure group in north Wales that the wording of the Welsh Government’s...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Yesterday, you told us that you were minded to phase out the Communities First programme, and will look afresh at how the Welsh Government can support resilient communities empowered with a strong voice in the decisions that affect their everyday lives. I shared with you a host of statutory and third sector organisation examples where they’re actually making things happen on the...
Mark Isherwood: Co-production enables citizens and professionals to share power and work together in equal partnership, creating opportunities for people to access support when they need it and to contribute to social change, acknowledging that everyone is an expert in their own lives. I also yesterday quoted Oxfam Cymru when they said the Welsh Government must secure lasting change, embedding the...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. Well, I hope in going forward you will embrace the definition of the strength-based approach, which is about moving away from a system in which people have their needs assessed and addressed by social services departments and other agencies to a system that protects an individual’s independence, resilience, ability to make choices and well-being by supporting their strengths in a...
Mark Isherwood: Well, clearly, right to buy doesn’t build new houses and the welcome but very late abolition of the housing revenue account subsidy system only enables limited borrowing. Housing regeneration isn’t just about bricks and mortar; it’s about people and communities. How, therefore, will you ensure that local authorities that retained their stock, often because tenants were scared with...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Autism is a lifelong developmental condition affecting more than one in 100 children and adults in Wales—an estimated 34,000 autistic people, each affected in a different way. Together with families and carers, there are around 136,000 people in the autism community living in Wales. Our motion recognises a need for specific legislation for autism and calls on the Welsh Government to...
Mark Isherwood: Please speak to the autism community in Wales—there are cross-cutting issues—as you would learn from them. But this motion is specific to the concerns of a community who’ve been campaigning many years for this and are being left behind the rest of the United Kingdom on this. Now, from Ystradgynlais, we heard at that meeting that people are let down and angry that they have to fight so...
Mark Isherwood: Yes.
Mark Isherwood: It’s important they have a statutory right to those services. We can’t wait for another refreshed strategy; we’ve waited too long, and I’ll address the concerns that justify that position expressed by the community to me as I develop my speech. Well, this stated that statutory backing to the strategy, combined with much closer measurement of progress to meet the key aims of the...
Mark Isherwood: Tourism sector representatives in Flintshire and across north Wales have told me the Welsh Government needs to respond to the £40 million provided by Visit England for tourism marketing there, and to acknowledge how it proposes to address the fund there already being distributed. How, therefore, do you respond to their concern that Wales needs to be aware of the increased resources close to...
Mark Isherwood: Can I call for two statements, please? Firstly, on community safety in Wales, following the Auditor General for Wales’s report of that name, launched today. This says, rightly: ‘Community safety relates to people’s sense of personal security and their feelings of safety in relation to where they live, work and spend their leisure time.’ But it goes on to say: ‘The Welsh Government...
