Objective 1 - the response from the Assembly

Last week, I produced a paper on the use of European funds in Wales under the Objective 1 programme. This research – based on the Assembly’s own data - showed that half of the counties in Wales had lost out under the programme and there had been an unfair allocation of funding across the Objective 1 region. It went on to propose that there should a greater focus on ensuring that every county within West Wales and the Valleys gets its fair share of funding to ensure greater prosperity across the whole region rather than in some counties.

I had hoped that, having spent a considerable amount of my spare time on this research, that the detailed analysis would trigger a meaningful debate on the use of European funds and, more importantly, would enable policymakers to critically re-examine the approach to the next round of £1.3 billion in raising prosperity within our poorest counties. Instead, the response of the Assembly Government was to dismiss any discussion and to fall back on their spin doctors to tell a completely different tale which bore little resemblance to addressing the real facts about this issue.

Let me share some of the Assembly’s response to my research with you, as it is certainly worth reading as a lesson for all aspiring public affairs spin doctors.

First of all, they stated that "Our successful management of European Funding has already ensured that Welsh national income has broken the £40 billion barrier - over ten billion pounds more than in 1999 when the National Assembly was set up”.

Whilst this is true, what they forget to say was that the actual difference between the poorest and richest parts of Wales has actually increased since 1999, despite the hundreds of millions of additional pounds of funding being spent by Objective 1. The latest statistics show that in West Wales and the Wales, the proportion of ‘national income’ rose by 26.1 per cent. In contrast, East Wales – which does not get Objective 1 funds – grew by 31.3 per cent. T

his clearly shows that the current approach to the ‘successful management’ of the Objective 1 programme has not closed the gap in prosperity between the poorest and richest areas of Wales. Indeed, prosperity per head in the Gwent Valleys has gone down from 63 per cent to 58 per cent of the UK average and Bridgend/Neath Port Talbot from 74 per cent to 64 per cent.

Secondly, the Assembly claimed that it has helped thousands more people into work and, given the hundreds of millions spent, it would be a surprise if this was not case. However, an independent evaluation of the Objective 1 programme indicated that it is unlikely to achieve the original employment target of 43,500 additional jobs and will have created between 26,000 and 40,500 net additional new jobs by the end of its life.

Indeed, for the 12 months ending in June 2006, the average employment level in West Wales and the Valleys was unchanged from the previous year. For East Wales, the level was 3,000 higher. Devolution was about returning power to the people of Wales and yet, in terms of economic development policies, there is a creeping centralisation where the Assembly and its highly paid civil servants know best.

Naively, I had hoped for a full and frank debate on this matter, not a dismissal of the facts as ‘parochial issues’ and ‘impractical’. For many people in the poorest parts of Wales, getting the amounts of funding they deserve for projects to improve the prosperity within their local communities is certainly not a parochial or an impractical issue and demonstrates how out of touch part of our devolved administration has become.

Many people believe that it is no longer acceptable that parts of Wales which should, by right, be getting millions in additional funding are, instead, losing out. The challenge for the next Assembly Government is to ensure that all the counties within West Wales and the Valleys get their fair share of the £1.3 billion of new European structural funds.

I hope that every politician will take this matter far seriously than the Assembly’s spin doctors and fight to ensure that no part of our economy is left behind in this drive to create a more prosperous Wales.