The Valleys needs its own development agency with statutory powers and real financial firepower to address its economic challenges, says former Welsh Government minister Alun Davies.
Mr Davies said that despite best intentions the Welsh Government's once flagship Valleys Taskforce, which he chaired and launched in 2016, had run its course due to a lack of funding, compounded by a government departmental silo mentality.
The Labour MS for Blaenau Gwent said such a body, like a smaller version of the WDA which the Welsh Government abolished back in 2004, should cover the local authority areas of Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr, Caerphilly, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent and Bridgend.
The Welsh Government is looking to introduce regional development agencies across Wales, with a first pilot potentially covering the Cardiff Capital Region that extends across the ten local authorities of south east Wales.
However, Mr Davies said that Valley authorities in the region needed their own distinct development agency, with clear powers and budget, and one which didn't include the region's cities in Cardiff and Newport.
Mr Davies, writing for BusinessLive Wales ( see in full below) he said: "When I was establishing the Valleys Taskforce I had a small group of civil servants and virtually no budget. To even run a consultation programme I had to go cap-in-hand to another minister for a budget to do so. To drive an economic programme I had to go to the economy minister and economy department and persuade civil servants there to prioritise my programme which was not necessarily the priority of their minister.
"In seeking to establish a Valleys Park I had to go to a third minister to seek support and resources and people who could drive that programme forward. Taken together it is little surprise that more effort went into internal meetings than actually delivering the programme.
"It is clear to me that we now need to revisit this debate ahead of the election next May. Let me start this conversation with four Cs - consistency, capacity, coherence and commitment.
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"First of all we desperately need some policy consistency. The Valleys have suffered far too much from ministers with either a plan or a need to experiment with an economic theory. Every new minster means a new plan. New targets. New objectives. Start. Stop.
"It is right and proper that we review and change an approach that is not working. It would be foolhardy to do otherwise. But to chop and change without such a review is also as foolhardy.
"Welsh Government certainly does have the capacity and firepower to deliver real change and that firepower has been deployed, but all too often it is divided between departments and ministers and officials and silos all of which mitigate against delivery. Too much time and resource is wasted on trying to coordinate all these competing priorities, funding streams and priorities."
He said the need for a coherent strategy to boost the economic competitiveness of Valley communities had never been greater, particularly as there remains little in the way of clarity from the 海角视频 Government on the successor to European Union structural funding — which all six authorities have been in receipt of since 2000 — through its Shared Prosperity Fund.
Mr Davies add: "The confusion of different structures and the crowded field of competing priorities means that we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of management, but little in terms of coherence.
"So at the heart of the debate next year [Senedd elections] about how we continue to focus on the futures of the Valleys needs to be a debate on how we deliver.
"It is time to accept the conclusion that without a Valleys development agency —Valleys Future — rooted in the Valleys and with the single objective of delivering a clear vision with the capacity and resources to do so, then we will continue to have a sterile debate where targets are set, but where delivery is forgotten."
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Alun Davies' on a Valleys development agency
One of the certainties of political life in Wales is the launch of a Valleys programme by an incoming government or administration. I took my place in this line when the current government was elected in 2016 when I launched the Valleys Taskforce.
In doing so I was following my own predecessors, people such as Jocelyn Davies or Leighton Andrews who launched a valleys programme back in 2007. In the few short years since the taskforce was established we have seen the launch of the Tech Valleys programme in my own constituency, the taskforce itself has seen its work and priorities re-focused and the Cardiff and Swansea City Deals have been ploughing their own uncertain courses.
At some point in the future the 海角视频 Government will eventually launch their Shared Prosperity Fund which will also we assume seek to spend some money in the Valleys.
And through it all the Valleys remain the parts of Wales facing the greatest social and economic challenges. If committees, resolutions, press releases and speeches could eradicate poverty then the valleys would be a modern utopia.
For too long the Valleys has seen well-meaning, and sometimes principled, interventions but all have lacked coherence and a far-sighted vision together with the resources to do the job. Ahead of the election next year I believe we need to ask ourselves some pretty fundamental questions. And we need to be brutally honest with ourselves in answering those questions.
The Valleys Taskforce was established, at least partly, as a response to the call from some of us who represent seats in the Valleys for the creation of a Valleys development body. At the time there was no appetite to create such a body and a taskforce was the means by which the Welsh Government would create a new focus on the needs of Valleys communities. But it is pretty clear that has now run its course.
As an example. When I was establishing the taskforce I had a small group of civil servants and virtually no budget. To even run a consultation programme I had to go cap-in-hand to another minister for a budget to do so. To drive an economic programme I had to go to the economy minister and economy department and persuade civil servants there to prioritise my programme which was not necessarily the priority of their minister. "In seeking to establish a Valleys Park I had to go to a third minister to seek support and resources and people who could drive that programme forward. Taken together it is little surprise that more effort went into internal meetings than actually delivering the programme.
"It is clear to me that we now need to revisit this debate ahead of the election next May. Let me start this conversation with four Cs - consistency, capacity, coherence and commitment.
First of all we desperately need some policy consistency. The Valleys have suffered far too much from Ministers with either a plan or a need to experiment with an economic theory. Every new minster means a new plan. New targets. New objectives. Start. Stop.
It is right and proper that we review and change an approach that is not working. It would be foolhardy to do otherwise. But to chop and change without such a review is also as foolhardy.
To set out targets and strategies and objectives and programmes at the beginning of a Parliament to dump those approaches halfway through is to invite frustration and guarantee failure. It is clear to me that the Valleys Taskforce will not deliver the policy consistency that people and institutions have a right to expect from the government over the term of its office.
And if we are to have that consistency then we also need a means of delivering on that debate. We need a significant increase in capacity.
Outside of Rhondda Cynon Taff it is difficult to see any one of the Valleys local authorities with the capacity to deliver on the scale required to create the conditions for a fundamentally different economic future. The hard truth is that most local authorities in the valleys are too small to deliver the sort of the economic inputs that I saw in Flanders some years ago. The scale of the ambition of the Crucible project in Merthyr will never be achieved and Tech Valleys in Blaenau Gwent will continue to struggle without significantly greater capacity.
Welsh Government certainly does have the capacity and firepower to deliver real change and that firepower has been deployed but all too often it is divided between departments and ministers and officials and silos all of which mitigate against delivery. Too much time and resource is wasted on trying to coordinate all these competing priorities, funding streams and priorities.
At the same time other programmes which should be delivering the critical capacity and resource such as the EU structural funds and much-debated 海角视频 Shared Prosperity Fund and Capital Region but they also have their own priorities and their objectives and their own lines of accountability.
Which brings me to another C – coherence – it has been a fact of life that since the abolition of the WDA that the key policy levers required by policy-makers have sat in different places with different leaderships, different priorities and different objectives.
The needs of the Valleys for a coherent programme has never been greater. But the confusion of different structures and the crowded field of competing priorities, much that we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of management, but little in terms of coherence.
And this will be made worse by current plans of both the Welsh and 海角视频 Governments. The flawed legislation on local government and the naked politicisation of the shared prosperity fund mean that there is likely to be less coherence in the future than there is today.
And finally the Valleys need a commitment and a focus to our future which is razor-sharp and enduring. The Welsh Government is being pulled in every direction. It is unable to provide the focus on the Valleys that we require. That commitment will only come from an organisation whose only raison d’etre is the Valleys and has no competing priorities and no competing demands to either spend or to deliver the same results elsewhere – mainly in areas where such delivery is in all probability far easier to achieve.
So at the heart of the debate next year about how we continue to focus on the futures of the Valleys needs to be a debate on how we deliver. And I do not believe that we can avoid the conclusion that limited capacity, no coherence, little consistency and short-term commitment cannot all be wished away by the ambition of a single minister. It is time to accept the conclusion that without a Valleys development authority - Valleys Future - rooted in the Valleys and with the single objective of delivering a clear vision with the capacity and resources to do so then we will continue to have a sterile debate where targets are set, but where delivery is forgotten."