--- election_year: 2010 party_id: welsh-labour party_name: Welsh Labour party_leader: Carwyn Jones political_spectrum: centre-left victory: false government_outcome: opposition sections: - economy - taxation - health - education - housing - immigration - defence - foreign-policy - environment - law-and-order - welfare - democracy-and-constitution - agriculture - energy - devolution - science-and-technology - local-government --- # Welsh Labour Manifesto 2010 ## Foreword ### The choice we have to make in Wales This General Election is about making a choice. In Wales there is a clear choice between Labour and the Conservatives. No one else can win, no one else can form a government at Westminster. It is a choice that will shape the future of every family, business and community in our country. It is a choice between change for the better with Labour or change for the worse under the Tories. The Welsh economy is just beginning to recover from the worldwide financial crisis. We want to lock in that recovery; not put it at risk. But there is a real danger that, if the Tories get in, the Welsh economy will slide into a second, far tougher, and more damaging recession. With David Cameron and George Osborne threatening an emergency Budget within 50 days of winning the election with a programme of swift and savage cuts, Welsh jobs, Welsh prosperity and Welsh businesses are at risk. This is a time of real choice for every parent taking their child to school, nervous about what the future will hold. A choice for every public sector worker fearful of Tory job cuts. A choice for every business person struggling to survive. A choice for every family worried about paying their mortgage in an age of insecurity, a choice for every young person seeking work. A choice for every pensioner trying to make ends meet. And above all, this is a choice about Wales’ economic stability and securing Welsh jobs. Even after the global banking crisis, after all the problems people have faced with the worst world recession in eighty years, there are still 2.4 million more jobs in Britain with our Labour Government than under the Tories – and 98,000 more jobs in Wales. There are still over 800,000 more public sector workers – well over 50,000 more in Wales including doctors, nurses, teachers, and police officers. All vital public sector workers, to ensure that waiting times for hospital operations are now down from years to weeks, that school standards are up, and that crime is down. A Tory Government would put at risk much that Welsh families depend on: tax credits for people on modest incomes; free prescriptions; free bus travel for older people; free breakfasts in primary schools, tax-free winter fuel payments. The Tories will make savage cuts after an election, whatever they say before polling day. Wales cannot look to the past now. We need to build new industries that can guarantee jobs for the future with confidence. Labour will support those new industries because we know Wales needs a government that is on people’s side, not a government that leaves people to make it on their own. Labour has always been the party of the people, standing up for everyone and not just the privileged few. That is why we founded the NHS and why in Wales we have opened new hospitals across Wales, undertaken a massive NHS refurbishment programme and introduced free prescriptions. It’s not the same with the Tories. They have pledged to give £200,000 each in inheritance tax cuts to the richest 150 estates in Wales. Yet, for everyone else, they threaten deep cuts to remove benefits from cradle to grave. We want everyone to enjoy the chance to get on in life, to get ahead. We believe that Wales prospers best as a valued and integral part of the UK. We do not want to turn our backs on the rest of the UK because we thrive within it, we set the standard in talent and innovation. The Welsh Assembly, made by Labour and led by Labour, is making a real difference to people’s lives: with massive investment in our frontline services, with free bus passes for over 60s, better school results across Wales and free swimming for under 16s. Savage Tory cuts now to these frontline services would harm us all. The Tories would be a change we cannot afford. Labour is breathing new life into communities across Wales. Our programme of action is based on our values of social justice, sustainability and inclusivity. 18 years of Tory rule led to record unemployment and community neglect, leading to many of the problems which Labour is now working hard to put right. #### Labour in Wales is: * Securing the economic recovery, not putting it at risk * Protecting frontline services * Standing up for the many and a future fair for all families * Supporting new industries and future jobs * Speaking up for Wales in the United Kingdom In the end, this election is a straight choice between Labour and the Tories. Nobody else is going to win – not Plaid Cymru, not the Liberal Democrats. Don’t gamble; don’t put Wales’ future at risk. Vote Labour. Peter Hain Secretary of State for Wales Carwyn Jones First Minister of Wales ### What’s at risk? There are five key risks from the Tories in Wales 1) Early Tory cuts will choke off the recovery and slide Wales into a second, deeper recession. 2) The Tories’ cradle to grave cuts will fall on free school breakfasts, prescriptions and bus passes and on tax credits. 3) As the party of the wealthy elite the Tories will only ever stand up for the privileged few who need support least. 4) The inexperience of George Osborne and the opportunism of David Cameron will mean that they take risks and make the wrong call at every turn. 5) With a weaker Welsh voice in Westminster under Tory plans, Wales will get ignored. ## Chapter 1: Economy ### Securing the economic recovery, not putting it at risk For the first ten years of our Labour Government, Wales enjoyed record levels of growth, low inflation, low interest rates and more jobs than ever before. But the last two years have seen a completely unprecedented economic and financial crisis, which has hit virtually every country in the world, including Wales. Labour chose to fight the recession with bold action, which has already ensured that hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, who would otherwise have been casualties of the recession, have stayed in their jobs; that many thousands more have not had their homes repossessed; that thousands of businesses have been protected; and that nobody has lost their savings. We took the right economic decisions for the country – decisions opposed at every turn by the Conservatives. We invested at the right time to keep people in jobs. We cut taxes to put more money in the economy. We made it possible for the Bank of England to keep interest rates low. We toughened the rules on banking. #### Labour has provided real help * Over £33million worth of loans has been offered to over 425 companies in Wales through the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. * Over 10,070 businesses in Wales have deferred over £147m of payments under the extension of the HMRC Time to Pay Scheme. In the UK, over 160,000 businesses have deferred over £4.36billion of payments. * Nearly 17,000 of the 339,250 new orders under the Car Scrappage Scheme have been taken in Wales. But we now need to lock in the Welsh economic recovery and build for the future. Key to our success will be the entrepreneurial Welsh private sector, which in turn relies on Government support and investment together with a strong, responsible, stable, banking and financial services industry. We need to nurture more small and medium sized companies in Wales, support the growth of larger Welsh businesses and rebuild our industrial base. Wales already has world-leading businesses in key sectors like aerospace, biosciences, defence and steel. But we now need to ensure that – even in the present risk-averse financial world after the credit crunch – there is financial support and investment for the industries and jobs of the future. Support from the European Union will be vital in helping Wales move into economic prosperity. That is why Labour believes in positively engaging with the EU to secure European funding. Wales is currently receiving £2 billion in European structural fund support – refused by the Tories in the 1990s – and we are determined to ensure that Wales continues to receive the best possible level of support after the present funding period ends in 2013. This investment will be vital in West Wales and the Valleys. It will ensure that the needs of rural areas are addressed and that the South Wales Valleys continue to develop a diverse industrial base with research and development and well-paid employment becoming the hallmarks of the region’s economy. Labour believes in active government, to help Wales build a new culture of enterprise with a stronger private sector. There is no substitute for the drive and ambition brought by a strong enterprise culture. It is the engine of economic progress, because the recovery in Wales cannot be driven by consumer debt or public spending. It can only be driven by Welsh private sector investment and Welsh private enterprise. Wales has a long entrepreneurial tradition. It inspired social entrepreneurs as well as major Welsh investors through the 19th and 20th centuries. But we now need a refreshed entrepreneurialism that is based on long-term investment, on proper rewards for wise risk-taking, on bringing new technologies and new ideas to market and on real performance. That doesn’t mean handing our future over to the market, but it does mean providing the economic environment in which businesses can thrive. Those who can afford to contribute the most should do so. But we will always seek to ensure that those who add and create value are properly rewarded. That is why Britain retains one of the most favourable tax regimes in the world for entrepreneurs who start a successful business and eventually sell part of their stake. Our 18 per cent capital gains tax rate is among the lowest in the world and our corporation tax rate among the lowest in the G7. A competitive tax environment is something Labour will preserve. Labour has long supported the ideals and principles behind the Cooperative movement and has a close alliance with the Co-op Party. That is why we will also provide support to alternative business models, such as the cooperatives that share rewards with their employees. That is why we will reform tax relief for employee share ownership to encourage whole-firm share option schemes and an expansion of employee-owned trusts such as the John Lewis Partnership, whose new store in Cardiff created almost 800 jobs. #### In our UK manifesto we have said we will now * Secure the recovery by supporting the economy and more than halve the deficit through renewed economic growth, fair taxes, and cuts to low priority spending. Realise our stakes in publicly controlled banks to secure the best deal for the taxpayer, * introduce a new global levy and reform the rules for banking to ensure no repeat of past irresponsibility, Create UK Finance for Growth bringing £4 billion together to provide capital for growing businesses and invest in the growing sectors of the future. * Build a high tech economy, supporting business to create 1 million more skilled jobs and modernizing our infrastructure with High Speed Rail, a Green Investment Bank and broadband access for all. * Encourage a culture of long-term commitment to sustainable company growth, making corporate takeovers harder by requiring a super-majority of two-thirds of shareholders. #### In Wales that will mean * Investment in skills and jobs * We will continue to provide capital support for businesses in rural, semi-rural and urban areas. * Swansea University is already benefiting from £30m investment, which should create up to 650 jobs for the knowledge economy. * Airbus will benefit from £340m in UK Government loans for its factories in Filton and Broughton, North Wales. * A High Performance Computing Institute will be created with £44 million investment including £10 million from UK Strategic Investment Fund. * The Defence Technical College at St Athan will bring thousands of jobs to South Wales. This will provide key training for all our Armed Forces and will create a centre of international expertise in Wales – but is opposed by the Nationalists. #### Investment in infrastructure * We will electrify the Great Western main line between London and Swansea, cutting journey times by 30 minutes. This builds on the investment we have already made in rail services in Wales, including the opening of the Vale of Glamorgan and Ebbw Vale lines. By enabling faster connections with London it will bring South Wales into the orbit of the major financial centre in the UK and help boost investment in Wales. * We will continue to bring about further improvements, especially on cross-border links such as the Wrexham-Bidston line. * We will invest £1 billion in superfast broadband technology to boost our global competitiveness in business and communications, and to roll out superfast broadband technology to 90 per of the country, building on our universal service commitment to 2 megabit broadband by 2012. This will benefit many rural and hard-to-access areas in Wales, and will be funded through a modest levy on telephone landlines. The Tories have made clear they oppose this investment. #### Invest in innovation * We will make Wales a leading provider of green energy, produced not only by wind, but from biomass, marine and microgeneration. * We will make Wales a leading digital economy. * We will encourage biotechnology and the creative industries. * We will ensure that Welsh businesses continue to maximise opportunities from the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics and that communities translate the enhanced interest in sport into increased involvement and participation in local sporting activities. ## Chapter 2: Jobs ### More quality jobs There are few things more devastating than losing your job and spending a long period out of work. Wales knows better than anywhere what sustained high levels of unemployment can do to families and communities. We suffered in Tory recessions that saw record peaks of unemployment, less support for work creation and a ‘power cut’ for Welsh influence. The cost to mental and physical health can be enormous, let alone the benefits bill to the taxpayer. That’s why from day one of the Labour government we worked to get more people into work and off benefits. We introduced the National Minimum Wage and Tax Credits to help make work pay and we tightened up the rules on benefits. It’s also why we have taken action to protect and create jobs during the recession. The Labour Government has invested an extra £5 billion across the UK to help people back to work, including £3 billion invested in Jobcentre Plus. We are employing 16,000 new staff in Jobcentre Plus to work with the high levels of people coming off Jobseekers Allowance. Despite the recession, more than half of people on JSA stop claiming within 3 months. Specifically in Wales the Labour-led Assembly has set up two innovative programmes: * ReAct is giving people the training they need to re-skill or up-skill and rejoin the labour market sooner rather than later – nearly 15,000 workers have been helped so far. * ProAct has committed almost £24 million so far, supporting around 200 companies and helping over 9,100 people in Wales. Because of Labour’s constant commitment to tackling unemployment and striving for full employment we have seen the Welsh economy transformed over the last 13 years. * Nearly 11,000 jobs have been created in Wales through the £1 billion Future Jobs Fund, providing 18 – 24 years old who have been out of work for more than 6 months with job opportunities. * There are 98,000 more jobs in Wales today, even after the recession, than there were in 1997 and latest figures show that employment is rising. * Latest figures also show that Wales has seen the largest fall in economic inactivity out of all UK nations and regions in the last quarter and is the only region to see a fall since the same quarter last year. Economic inactivity in Wales is now 5,000 lower than it was May 1997. * Compared to the last recession, the claimant count in every single local authority in Wales is lower than in 1992. In Wales overall, it is 42 per cent lower than under the Tories, despite the most severe financial storm the world has encountered for decades. * Latest labour market figures show that for the fourth month in a row more people moved off Jobseekers Allowance than moved onto it. * Long-term unemployment in Wales is over 40 per cent lower than it was in 1997 and over 75 per cent lower than it was in early 90s. In the recession we refused to allow a return to the mass unemployment of the 1980s and 1990s. That is why UK unemployment now is 500,000 lower than most estimates predicted and youth unemployment in Wales is still down over 60 per cent from the height of the previous recession in the 1990s. But Wales still has significant numbers of people out of work. We will do even more to make work pay, to provide support for those looking for work and to make sure people have the skills they need for the 21st century economy. With countries like China and India now competing with us, we need to be better at both research and development, creating innovative ideas and commercializing them. The global recession underlines the vital importance for Wales of being as competitive as possible. That means making sure everyone in Wales has the right skills for the future, as emphasised by the Labour-led Assembly government in its broad-ranging Skills that Work for Wales strategy. During a decade of devolution, we have doubled the number of apprenticeships in Wales from around 13,000 to 26,480 – and we are determined to strengthen this important pathway to economic recovery. #### In our UK manifesto we affirm that we will * Create 200,000 jobs through the Future Jobs Fund, with a job or training place for young people out of work for six months but benefits cut at 10 months if they refuse a place; anyone unemployed for more than two years guaranteed work but no option of life on benefits. * Increase the National Minimum Wage at least in line with average earnings over the period to 2015, and ensure that when someone who has found it difficult to get into work comes off benefits, their family will be at least £40 a week better off. * Expand advanced apprenticeships and offer Skills Accounts for all workers to upgrade their skills. * Introduce a new ‘Father’s Month’ of paid leave in the first year of a child’s life. * By the end of the next Parliament we will ensure that the right to flexible working is extended to all older people, recognising that many, including grandparents and older workers want to vary their hours to the benefit of their families and to accommodate changing lifestyles. We will consult on the age at which this right should apply. * Create a People’s Bank at the Post Office and a Universal Service Obligation on banks to serve every community; a clamp down on interest rates for doorstep and payday loans. #### In Wales that will mean * 50,000 workers on the national minimum wage will see real increases in their standard of living. * Through Skills Growth Wales, we will provide grants for high level and new technology training that will directly help to bring about growth in turnover, profit and/or employment and provide around £3000 towards training for each individual for ‘higher end’ training. * Through Pathways to Apprenticeships, we will provide a flexible route for 2,000 16-24 year olds to spend up to a year in full time education gaining knowledge and skills to underpin successful completion of the full apprenticeship framework. * We will through the Young Recruits Programme, provide targeted support for 1,000 additional 16-24 year olds across Wales to access quality apprenticeship places, with a £50 per week contribution towards the wage costs of apprentices. * Through GO Wales, we will be offering a range of services to help students, graduates and businesses with work placements, work experience, funding for training and an online database of jobs. * Through the Task and Finish Group we will analyse our response to youth unemployment, look at how schemes can be simplified and what gaps there are in provision. We will harness the research capabilities in Welsh universities, which will play a vital role in developing new technologies that represent the jobs of the future. New technologies that we need to develop to deal with climate change present Wales with an enormous opportunity, which we are equally determined to seize. The UK government’s support for Ford’s plans for a new generation of lower carbon vehicles, with Bridgend playing a key role, point to the direction that we need to go. Our blueprint for a low carbon economy could create 1.2 million jobs across the UK and in Wales we are particularly strong in areas such as renewables, and clean coal, with carbon capture and storage to take advantage of these opportunities. Labour will continue to move towards a replacement nuclear power station in Anglesey, recognising that we need a diverse energy supply. ## Chapter 3: Green, sustainable communities ### Green, sustainable communities Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity. That is why Labour is determined to tackle harmful carbon emissions and work with other countries to get a binding global Treaty to prevent a 2 degree increase in the global temperature. We made sure that the UK exceeded our Kyoto target. We have insulated millions of homes, introduced renewable heating technologies and become the first government in the world to bring into law binding climate change targets. Our environment, energy and climate change policies are about providing new solutions to tackle harmful emissions while at the same time securing new jobs in highly skilled areas. The Labour-led Assembly Government has ensured that sustainability lies at the heart of everything we do. #### Our Climate Change Strategy for Wales means we will: * Work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. * Assist over 100,000 households in Wales with heating and insulation measures. * Invest up to £350 million from Assembly and energy company money over three years in order to create low carbon economically resilient Welsh communities. * We are committed to delivering a diverse, flexible and more secure energy policy for Wales that recognises the very real threat facing our planet. Wales has the potential to produce twice the amount of electricity it currently uses from renewable sources by 2025. * We will make Wales a leading provider of green energy, produced not only by wind, but also from biomass, marine and microgeneration. This will not only combat climate change but generate thousands of new jobs, for example through Anglesey’s vision of an ‘energy island’ with offshore wind and other industries located there, and construction of the Wylfa ‘B’ Nuclear Power Station which Labour fully supports. The UK Government in consultation with the Welsh Assembly Government will continue to assess the potential of tidal power, especially in the Severn Estuary, which could provide up to 5 per cent of the UK’s electricity generation. We will consider the outcome of the independent study into the environmental, flood protection and economic impacts of the various options, including a Severn barrage, lagoons and other innovative technologies before making an early decision on taking this forward. Labour initiatives like the Post Office Diversification Fund and the Communities Facilities and Activities Programme are supporting valued community assets, while our support for community focussed schools is helping to ensure that some of our schools are acting as a resource for the whole community. Labour will work to assist rural areas across Wales, providing support for farming, fishing and woodland industries in Wales to ensure they become more sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. #### We will: * Roll out our new plans for a ‘People’s Bank’ using the Post Office network to rural areas. * Provide a budget of £570 million for the remaining lifetime of the Wales Rural Development Plan to ensure our rural areas can respond to new market demands, develop land management techniques and diversify the economic base. * In order to protect farmers and food suppliers from unfair and uncompetitive practices by major retailers, we will create a Supermarket Ombudsman. Consumers have the right to know where food comes from. We are working with the food industry and retailers to ensure proper food labelling, including tougher and clearer ‘country of origin’ information. This will also help to level the playing field for Welsh farmers. * Provide for 100,000 hectares of new tree planting under the Glastir scheme over the 20 years from 2012. * Invest £3 million in the Tidy Towns initiative which allows local authorities to improve neglected areas. With the Ryder Cup coming to Wales later this year, Labour has made sure that tourism and Wales are on the map. Such major sporting and cultural events at the Millennium Stadium, and at conference centres like Venue Cymru in Llandudno, all build upon the natural attractions of Wales to support an important tourism industry. With a wide range of high quality accommodation, a network of visitor attractions and our mountains, coast and countryside, Wales retains that special sense of place. This includes our forestry and growing markets like activity holidays. All this underpins a multi-million pound industry essential to the local economies of many areas in Wales. The Labour-led Assembly Government will invest £17.4m over the next four years to ensure the Welsh tourism industry benefits from the latest digital technology developments in areas such as on-line marketing, booking systems and business management. ## Chapter 4: Standing up for the many ### Standing up for the many, not the few Labour has always stood for giving everyone, not just the privileged few, a real chance to get on in life, to get ahead and forge a rewarding life and career for themselves and for their family. That is why our mission is to do even more to enable everyone to be ambitious and to realise both their potential and their ambitions. We all have to live within our means, but it is only fair that we all should be able to share in Wales’ growing prosperity. For every family that means making work pay and guaranteeing that working families have enough money in their pockets come pay day. That is why, whilst we are committed to cutting the deficit by more than half, we will not raise the basic, higher and new top rates of tax through the next Parliament and we renew our pledge not to extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares. It is also why we will maintain tax credits, not cut them as the Tories plan. For many families they make the difference between breaking even and going under. A rewarding and properly rewarded job is by far the best route out of poverty which is why we are committed to providing a real incentive for everyone on benefits in Wales to work. When someone who has found it difficult to get into work comes off benefits, their family will be at least £40 a week better off. And, whereas the Tories would let the National Minimum Wage wither on the vine, we will give the Low Pay Commission the remit of increasing it at least in line with average earnings over the period to 2015. In addition we are determined to help all families get on in life, which is why we have increased the level of child tax credit and introduced Child Trust Funds. Our commitment cannot stop when young people leave school, however. We want every Welsh youngster to have the chance of a good start in life. More than half of young people already leave Jobseekers Allowance within 3 months but, for those who do not, we will now guarantee access to a job, work experience or training for those who claim JSA for more than six months, with benefits cut at 10 months if they refuse a place. This will ensure there is no legacy of long term youth unemployment left by this recession as there was so tragically in the Tory 1980s and 1990s. Labour is committed to working with our trade unions to secure the economic recovery and improve and protect our frontline public services across Wales. This social partnership in action is at the centre of our work to build a high tech economy and ensure that public services are more responsive to citizens. Our partnership approach lies in stark contrast to the hostility of the Tories, who routinely knock and under-value our Trade Unions. Through the Wales Union Learning Fund, for example, the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government has worked with Trade Unions to encourage and support learning in the workplace since 1999. It recognises the increasingly important role played by unions in improving the skills of the workforce. Nearly £8m has been allocated since 1999, which has supported 139 projects. The latest round saw the approval of fourteen new projects, supported with total funding of £2.45m over the next three years. #### In Wales we will: * Help 50,000 workers on the National Minimum Wage. * Continue the increased level of Winter Fuel Payments this winter at £250 for those aged 60 or over and £400 for those aged 80 or over, 161,300 of which were made in Wales this year. * Help 377,000 children in Wales with the increased child element of the child tax credit. * Maintain the Child Trust Fund accounts that have benefited 179,000 children in Wales. Welsh Labour will increase the number of affordable homes in Wales. To fulfil our ambition of building 6,500 new homes and revitalising the social housing sector in Wales, we will re-introduce the Housing LCO, which the Tories have blocked at Westminster. Labour is the party of equality and diversity. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated equally, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, religion or belief. Labour has led the way on gender equality, introduced new equality legislation and modernised and strengthened our anti-discrimination laws. Because we believe that everyone should be treated equally our Equality Bill will strengthen the law to prevent unfair discrimination. We also established the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2007 to act as a strong independent champion to tackle discrimination and promote equality. For women, Labour has more than doubled maternity pay, increased paid maternity leave to 9 months. The Equality Bill will make life fairer for women by bringing in compulsory gender pay gap reporting for businesses in 2013 if there is not sufficient progress by then. Labour will strengthen the successful Wales for Africa initiative, a programme with over 300 grass-roots community links; a small, yet significant contribution to and manifestation of the long standing efforts by the people of Wales to overcoming poverty and suffering world wide. As Wales is the world’s first and only Fair Trade Nation, we can continue to lead the way and support a system that not only guarantees a fair price, but allows communities in developing countries to start tackling key issues for themselves. This model can provide a viable framework for tackling some of the millennium development goals set by the UN in 2000, which are focused on such issues as health and education, and in doing so provide a better and fair future for the producers involved. It is a programme of justice, decency, empowerment and equity which is vital if we are serious about seeing longlasting change. ## Chapter 5: A strong, open, self-confident Wales ### A strong, open, self-confident Wales Wales is at its best when open-minded, open-hearted and open for business. The last few years have seen Wales grow in confidence. We will build on that and share the benefits of our nation’s self-assurance. That is why Wales has been able to attract major international sporting events such as the Ashes Test Match in Cardiff in 2009, and the Ryder Cup in Newport this year. Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium continues to be quite simply the best sporting venue in the world. Wales’ diverse, modern culture impels us to look outward and play our part on the international stage. We reject narrow nationalism because the best way to secure justice and human rights across the globe is as a proud part of Britain. As an integral part of the UK we have more than doubled Britain’s overseas aid and led the international drive for debt relief and trade justice. We welcome the new sense of Welsh identity that devolution has brought. Our Welsh citizenship is not based on the inward-looking parochialism of the Nationalists, but upon the inclusive, fair principles that define our modern Britain, where different communities live in mutual tolerance and respect. These principles that define Britishness have always been a hallmark of Welsh society. Wales has one of the UK’s oldest multi-ethnic communities in Cardiff, where Somali, Yemeni, Chinese and Indian seamen were drawn from the mid 19th century onwards to work in the thriving docks or as merchant seamen. So we celebrate the cultural differences within Wales and the fact that modern Wales is made up of so many different strands that together richly enhance the life of the community. We will never fall into the trap of claiming superiority over others, based on where you live or where you are born, what language you speak, what faith or philosophy you hold, what your skin colour or sexuality is, or whether you have a disability. A vital element of Welsh self-confidence is our pride in the Welsh Language. So we have legislated to give the National Assembly new powers to make provision for the Welsh Language, striking the right balance between the interests of those who use Welsh as their mother tongue and who wish to conduct their day-to-day business in the language and the majority of people in Wales who do not speak Welsh. Wales also needs a thriving broadcasting and cultural industry. BBC Wales will always be at the heart of this, but now that Wales has moved over to digital TV it is vital that the BBC does not have a monopoly of Welsh news and current affairs. The licence fee acts as a special production fund and we will ensure the BBC retains its strong drama team in Wales now so acclaimed for Dr Who and other top programmes. We will also seek to strengthen other broadcasters so that there is a variety of voices representing every part of Wales. #### We will: * Maintain a strong and well-funded BBC Wales and S4C, with good Welsh and English language Welsh production budgets. * Introduce Wales Live – a new regional news service for channel 3, ensuring Wales has its own distinctive independent television, radio and multimedia news and political reporting, in a new two year pilot with bases in Mold and in Cardiff and a £12million budget available from the completion of the digital roll out. * Continue to invest in Welsh medium education, increasing funding to a range of organisations which are promoting and securing the language and we are legislating in the Assembly to deliver new rights for Welsh speakers in the delivery of services. ## Chapter 6: A new politics – renewing our democracy ### A new politics – renewing our democracy Labour has delivered substantial constitutional change over the last 13 years, including the introduction of devolution to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But the present crisis of trust in politics and political institutions demands radical action and reform. Labour has always believed in reform and renewal of our democracy so that it meets the needs and challenges of the age. #### In our UK manifesto we have said that we will: * Hold referenda on the same day for moving to the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons and replacing the House of Lords with a democratic and accountable Second Chamber * Improve citizenship education for young people followed by a free vote in Parliament on reducing the voting age to 16. * Introduce a right to recall MPs where Parliament has failed to act against proven financial corruption. * Create a Statutory Register of Lobbyists, with MPs banned form working for lobbying companies and required to seek approval for paid outside appointments. * Legislate for Fixed Term Parliaments and chart a course towards a Written Constitution. A strong Wales needs a strong voice speaking up for Wales. That is why we will not cut the number of Welsh MPs by a quarter, as the Tories say they will do. Nor will we gerrymander the size and shape of Welsh seats. We will also end the unfair distribution of seats in the second chamber, which sees Wales very under-represented compared to London in the House of Lords. We will introduce an elected second chamber with a full contingent elected directly from Wales. It is a fundamental principle that decisions should be made as close as possible to those they most directly affect. That is why Labour created the Cabinet post of Secretary of State for Wales in 1964 and established the Welsh Office as a separate Department of State. Labour was elected in 1997 on a manifesto commitment to give the people of Wales an opportunity to vote for a new democratic Assembly and then led the Yes campaign to victory in the 1997 referendum. It was Labour that legislated for a Welsh Assembly to be established in 1999. And it was Labour that steered the 2006 Government of Wales Act ontothe statute book, giving the Assembly enhanced legislative powers and putting into place a process for transferring primary powers, after a referendum, to the Welsh Assembly. #### Since * Nearly 80 new powers have been transferred from Parliament to the Assembly, improving the delivery and quality of public services in Wales. * 13 Legislative Competence Orders (LCOs) have been made. * Ten Acts of Parliament have contained new framework powers for Wales. This has meant that six times as much Wales-specific legislation has been passed at Westminster, compared with the previous system. For example, the National Assembly for Wales has put in place a system of redress giving patients fairer access to compensation when health services go wrong; to increase entitlement to free school transport and improve safety; to change the curriculum for 14 to 19 year olds so that they have a wider choice of academic and vocational study; to re-organise the ways in which local authorities work together to deliver better local services; and to make statutory provision to take further action to tackle child poverty. Devolution is evolving. After the general election, the Secretary of State for Wales and the First Minister will move towards a referendum on further powers for the National Assembly for Wales. Together they will work to achieve a ‘yes’ vote. ## Chapter 7: Fair funding for Wales ### Fair funding for Wales – a proud nation integral to the wider UK Over the past 13 years of Labour Government, Wales has had a good deal, with the Welsh Budget more than doubling from under £7 billion to £16 billion – a record increase. Right now, for every £100 that is spent on schools, hospitals and other vital services in England, £114 is spent in Wales under the ‘Barnett Formula’ because of the relative sparsity, ill health, deprivation and age of our population compared with England. This formula has served Wales well these past Labour years: for example, funding for the Welsh Assembly Government’s health and hospital programmes has more than doubled, in real terms. The tax credit system introduced since 1997 has also been of special benefit to Wales. It gives Wales additional resources on top of the Barnett formula, through Working Tax Credits, Child Tax Credits and Pension Credits. At the same time, the Future Jobs Fund is helping nearly 11,000 Welsh young people into work, at a cost of £68 million, this is a huge and vital investment from the Treasury in Wales’ young people who are our future. Last year, the Holtham Commission reported on the Barnett Formula and the sharper convergence in the Welsh budget allocation to the English average than in Scotland or in Northern Ireland. As a result, the UK Labour Government last November agreed an historic reform which will mean that each year an assessment of the out turn under the Barnett formula will ensure that Wales is not disproportionately disadvantaged. We will provide fair funding for Wales, so that at least a similar standard of public services can be provided in Wales as is provided in comparable parts of the UK. We are committed to protecting frontline spending on childcare, schools and the NHS. As these constitute the main elements of the Barnett Formula, we can give a clear commitment that the spend per head relating to these elements will be protected. This will help to ensure that, in the out turn of the total budget allocated to the Welsh Assembly Government, Wales will not be disadvantaged. In addition, and in recognition of Wales’ distinctive economic needs, the UK Labour Government has used additional funds in Wales, on top of the money provided by the European Commission to Wales. A Labour Government will be prepared to do so again as Wales makes the transition to a low carbon, digital economy, with additional investment in Wales for developing the technologies and businesses on which this future economy will be built. ## Chapter 8: Protecting frontline services ### Protecting frontline services People across Wales want to know that they can access high quality public services tailored to meet their needs – from social care to schools and hospitals. Local Government in Wales has a huge role to play in ensuring that these services are delivered. Since 1999 funding through the revenue support grant to local government has grown from £2.5bn to £4bn – an increase of almost 60 percent. Local government has also benefited from an increase of over 370 percent in specific grants. This has been achieved whilst maintaining amongst the lowest council tax levels in Britain. In the tough economic climate we face Welsh Labour’s priorities will be protecting frontline services. We will make sure that services continue to improve and meet the needs of the people of Wales. Local authorities will work differently, cutting out unnecessary bureaucracy and working with each other. Over the last three years the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government has developed local service boards, which bring together the leaders of public services and third sector organisations in the area. This tackles problems such as making sure that elderly and vulnerable people can have their health and social care needs met, and that communities are safer because the police and local government work together. Boards also make public services more efficient by eliminating duplication. #### We will: * Use the new Efficiency and Innovation Board to ensure that public services in Wales are delivering the highest quality services in the most efficient way. * Use new powers in the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 to hold local authorities to account on the quality of their services and to make sure that there is ongoing improvement. * Encourage greater participation in the delivery ### Health * of local council services by ensuring the voluntary sector, business and community groups have a new scrutiny role and by putting in place measures which encourage a more diverse and representative range of people to become involved in local democracy. It was here in Wales that Labour created the NHS – our greatest achievement. The NHS has gained from the strong partnership between our Labour government in Westminster and the Labour-led Assembly Government. No one has done more for the NHS than Labour. We saved the NHS after the long years of neglect by the Conservatives and we are investing over £300m annually to repair the NHS estate. However this is only half the story. Since March 2007, there has been a massive programme of investment in new hospitals and health centres to replace outdated facilities, with construction already started on schemes totalling over £870m. New hospitals are being built across the country – from Caerphilly and Ebbw Vale to Tremadog – and accident and emergency facilities are being upgraded or refurbished – from a state-of-the-art Emergency Care Centre in Merthyr Tydfil to new units in Carmarthen, Newport and Aberystwyth. While we have made a major investment in hospitals we will work to make further improvements in community services closer to where you live. Under Labour we will deliver more services more locally in Wales. That’s why we’re planning to invest more than £117m in local facilities over the next five years. As a result of record levels of investment by Labour, along with the hard work of health staff, waiting times are at a record low. By December 2009 nine out of ten patients were treated within 26 weeks from initial referral to definitive treatment with many patients treated quicker than that; this compares with up to three years waiting for much needed operations under the Tories. The NHS in Wales has 29 per cent more qualified nursing staff and a 70 per cent increase in hospital consultants since 1999. With one in three people diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lives, having the best equipment and facilities to deal with the disease is a top priority. That’s why we have invested millions of pounds in new equipment to improve and speed up the treatment of patients. One of the key issues facing cancer patients, particularly once they are discharged from hospital based treatment, is a sense of abandonment and a lack of ongoing contact with specialists. That is why we have pledged that each patient diagnosed with cancer should have access to a nominated Key Worker to coordinate their care for the duration of their treatment in secondary care and subsequently within primary care via their GP. The Cancer Key Worker will, with the patient’s consent and agreement, take a key role in coordinating the patient’s care and promoting continuity, ensuring the patient knows who to go to for information and advice. The key worker would help the patient navigate the care system, and provide support and advocacy. The role would involve: * Orchestrating assessments to ensure patients’ needs are elicited. * Ensuring care plans have been agreed with patients. ### Education * Ensuring findings from assessments and care plans are communicated to others involved in a patient’s care. * Ensuring patients know who to contact when help or advice is needed, whether the ‘key worker’ or other appropriate personnel. * Managing transitions of care. This person may be from a variety of disciplines, including for instance a community nurse, allied health professional, nurse specialist or a social worker. Changes in key worker are likely to be required at key transition points. Where this becomes necessary, the change would be negotiated with the patient and carer, and there would be a clear hand-over to ensure continuity of care. Labour in Wales has introduced free prescriptions for all and free parking at our hospitals. We are committed to maintaining these, while the Tories would re-introduce payments for both. We now want to take the next steps to improve the health of our country. Working through the Labour-led Assembly Government we will improve access to GPs surgeries in terms of opening times and online services. Taking responsibility for our health is important and the Labour-led Assembly is taking action on alcohol and tobacco misuse and encouraging healthy lifestyles amongst our young people. Over 1,000 primary schools for example take part in the free breakfast scheme bringing both health and educational benefits to our children. The Tories would do away with this scheme. We have also taken action to protect NHS staff in Wales, and signalled that violent and aggressive behaviour against our hard-working nurses, doctors and paramedics will not be tolerated. We’ve installed CCTV systems in ambulances and accident and emergency units across Wales. #### We will: * Keep free prescriptions. * Work towards eliminating parking charges at all NHS hospitals in Wales. * Provide every cancer patient with a key worker. * Improve access to GPs’ surgeries. * Encourage healthy lifestyles . * Protect NHS staff at work. The Labour Party has always stood for fairness and we want to make sure that everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their ambitions, no matter what the circumstances into which they were born or where they grow up. Education has a vital role to play in laying the foundations for the kind of society in which we all want to live – one that is fair and which enables everyone to achieve what they want for themselves and for the communities in which they live. That is why, in Wales, we have led the way in creating an education system that is fit for the 21st Century. We have created a world-class early years programme in the Foundation Phase. The Foundation Phase comes with a guarantee of small class sizes and an imaginative curriculum that will prepare children for life-long learning. Where additional support is necessary in some areas, we have delivered Flying Start with its range of services, including additional health visiting, that are targeted to improve the life chances of Wales’ most disadvantaged children. We are building on this approach through the introduction of Intensive Family Support Teams, unique in the UK, to help more families cope with the most challenging of circumstances. We have provided free breakfasts for children in over 1,000 schools in Wales to make sure that as many children as possible start their school day ready to make the most of it. We have also radically reformed secondary education in Wales, including introducing the Welsh Baccalaureate, a qualification that allows young people to pursue a curriculum that is suited to their individual needs. Post-16, we have extended the range of choices open to learners by ensuring that schools and colleges work together to provide the right learning pathway for young people. We have launched the 21st Century Schools programme – a long-term programme of capital investment, to make sure that every school in Wales is built to modern, energy efficient standards and equipped technologically to the highest standards. Thanks to Welsh Labour, more than £800 million has been invested on school building projects in Wales since 2004. Our Welsh law on learning and skills and our commitment to apprenticeships has made sure that both academic and vocational routes are available to young people as they enter the world of work or go on to further or higher education. We have doubled the number of apprenticeships since 1999. #### We will also: * Transform educational provision for 14 to 19 year olds in Wales. * Break down artificial barriers to learning. * Raise educational attainment. * Reduce the number of our young people leaving full-time education early. * Reduce the numbers of those not in employment, education and training. * Increase the number of those progressing into post 16 education. As part of our response to the economic challenges facing Wales we will guarantee for young people: an education or training place for those up to 18; and a job or training place for 18-24 year olds out of work for six months. We want many more people in Wales to go on to higher education if that is what they choose and we have completely overhauled our student support arrangements to widen access, especially for young people from lower income families. We have also started work on the University of the Heads of the Valleys to bring opportunities for higher education right at the heart of one of Wales’ most economically disadvantaged areas. This year will see the establishment of the Coleg Ffederal that will significantly expand opportunities for higher education to be delivered through the medium of Welsh. As well as providing direct benefits to Wales’ learners this is a substantial investment in Wales’ economic and cultural future. We have to make sure that we are able to develop the higher skills base that is needed if Wales is to continue to compete internationally. A Labour Government will continue to encourage higher education in Wales to work much more closely with many more businesses, employers, and employer organisations in Wales and internationally, with both sides benefiting through knowledge exploitation, consultancy, better tailored and targeted workforce development programmes, spinout and other support services. Such exploitation will develop new business and employment opportunities. Although we have achieved a great deal, we remain ambitious for Wales’ learners. We will make sure that we continue to make the best use of the ‘Welsh pound’. Our Labour-led Assembly is now reviewing the monies for front line education spending in schools, further and higher education. We are committed to ensuring that more money reaches schools, teachers and pupils. We are also committed to making sure that we reduce the number of individual grant funding schemes so that we can reduce the costs of administration and to make sure that funding follows government objectives quickly and precisely. We will improve the collaboration across Wales between our schools, colleges and universities to make maximum use of our investment in skills development, higher learning, research and knowledge transfer. We are already reviewing the arrangements in place for strategic planning and the governance of higher education. We will ensure key public bodies including the NHS, local councils and Education Authorities never take a decision on how they spend their money without considering whether they are giving everyone an equal chance. We will introduce a National Literacy Programme aimed at 7-11 year olds. We know that improving literacy rates will improve school attendance rates and also helps learners address the challenges that come later on in their school careers. In order to maintain our progress to eliminating child poverty by 2020, the Labour-led Assembly Government has introduced a Measure to help vulnerable children and their families. Ending child poverty and improving opportunities for children is not just about income. Poverty can have a detrimental impact on health, family life, access to education and training. It is important families are given the support to get out of poverty, and in many cases, they are in poverty because they are unable to work due to social or health problems. We will develop a new child poverty strategy placing specific duties on the Welsh Assembly Government, local authorities and other public sector organisations to play their part. It will include councils having to: * Secure free, high-quality, targeted childcare, and * Provide more places for children to play safely. #### We will: * Eliminate child poverty in Wales by 2020. * Keep free school breakfasts. * Ensure more money reaches schools, teachers and pupils. * Improve collaboration across Wales between schools, colleges and universities. * Bind the work of higher education far more closely into businesses and employers. ## Chapter 9: Supporting older people ### Supporting older people The test of a civilised society is how it treats older people. This is another area where partnership between Labour in Westminster and in the Welsh Assembly has paid dividends for Wales. * Nearly 490,000 pensioner households are benefiting from the UK Winter Fuel Allowances and 164,000 from the Pension Credit. * The Welsh Assembly led the way in appointing an Older People’s Commissioner to champion the interests of older citizens. * The Labour-led Assembly Government provides free bus passes for all over 60s across Wales. * We acted to ensure fairer charging for non-residential care for the elderly across Wales. Since 2007, over 11,000 people have been taken out of charging or had their charges reduced. And from April 2011, nobody in Wales will pay more than £50 per week for their non-residential care. * We have introduced a Carers’ Measure to promote the well being of carers and support their provision of care. * Labour in Wales introduced free swimming for pensioners. We live in an ageing society and it is more important than ever that we protect dignity in old age. The number of Welsh people living well into their 80s is set to grow and many want to keep on working long after the conventional retirement age. Ensuring the NHS or local councils do not write people off just because of their age is a vital part of ensuring social justice for everyone in Wales. #### In our UK manifesto we affirm that we will: * Re-establish the link between basic state Pension and earnings from 2012, and provide help for 10 million people to build up savings through new Personal Pension Accounts. * End the default retirement age at 65, enabling people to decide for themselves how long they want to keep on working. * Maintain the winter fuel payments this year at £250 for over 60s and £400 for over 80s. * End age-discrimination in the NHS by ensuring that nobody is turned away just * because of their age and that all NHS services always take the full needs of older people into account. #### In Wales we will: * Help 680,800 people with winter fuel payments benefit. * Help more than 164,030 Welsh pensioners with the Pension Credit. * Encourage local authorities to expand free swimming. * Maintain free prescriptions and free bus passes that make a real difference to the lives of Welsh pensioners. * Provide funding to Local Authorities to help pensioners with their council tax. High-quality care is a foundation of a decent quality of life for older people – maintaining independence, keeping people active and healthy and reducing the need for care away from home, whether in hospital or a care home. The Labour-led Assembly Government, Paying for Care through it’s green paper will forge a new settlement for Wales and look to work to create a fair and sustainable care service as enduring as that which the Labour Government built after 1945. By building a new care system for Wales, Labour will ensure ### Honouring those to whom we owe the most high quality care and support for all – whoever you are, wherever you live and whatever condition leads you to need care and support. The system for care in Wales will have fairness at its heart, the same principle that has underpinned the NHS for decades. Wales sends a higher proportion than most other areas in the UK to serve their country and they deserve the best from us. That means providing the best training, equipment and support possible both during their service and after. We are determined to improve the care for people who have experienced health problems as a result of their military service. We owe them a debt of gratitude and have a duty of care to them. Veterans in Wales already receive priority treatment on the NHS for a health condition related to their military service and each of the Health Boards and NHS Trusts in Wales are required to designate an Armed Forces and Veterans’ Champion to drive forward improvements in the care and support for members of the armed services and veterans. We have also just introduced a council tax discount on family homes of service families in Wales. As a sign of our continued commitment to the military community, in our UK manifesto we have said that we will: * Introduce a Forces Charter to enshrine in law the rights of forces, their families, and Veterans. * Issue Veterans ID cards to help Veterans access their improved benefits, free to service leavers. * Roll out our Welfare Pathway to give personnel and their families better support and advice. #### In Wales we will: * Fully fund a new all-Wales service to support armed services personnel experiencing mental health problems. The service, which has been trialled in the Cardiff and Vale and Cwm Taf Health Board areas, offers access to clinicians with expertise in veterans’ mental health to provide assessment and suitable treatment. * Veterans who experience mental health and well-being difficulties will have a comprehensive assessment of their psychological and social needs. * Ensure that veterans and carers will be involved in the development of a management plan to meet their health and care needs; and that they have access to information on other services and support that they are entitled to in an effort to improve their health and quality of life. * Ensuring the best quality training for our armed services is vital, and Welsh Labour is proud that the state-of-the-art Technical College for our forces is to be located in St Athan – Wales will help prepare, protect and care for our armed services. ## Chapter 10: Fair rules, fair play ### Fair rules, fair play Labour has made Wales’ communities safer, but police performance across the country is still too uneven, and people want a greater say in how their neighbourhoods are policed. These will be our priorities for the next Parliament. The Tories talk tough but act soft: from police numbers, to DNA evidence, to gun laws. The Tories favour making police chiefs political rather than real reform. Crime has fallen by a third in Wales since Labour came to power in 1997. There are now 663 more police officers in Wales than there were in 1997 and over 600 new Police Community Support Officers. Police officers are precisely where they should be, on the streets, and we have introduced Neighbourhood Policing Teams in every community in Wales. That means you can find your local beat officer’s telephone number and you can check online what priorities the local police are working on. But it is not enough to protect what we have. Drugs still pose a real threat. It is all too easy for one anti-social person or family to ruin the lives of a whole community. #### So, we will: * Publish the first national standards for what you can expect from your local police. This will include response times, time on the beat, and monthly beat meetings. * Set out much clearer ways for people to know how to complain or seek redress against the police. * Roll out the National Victims’ Service for all victims of crime across England and Wales. * Tackle the problem of domestic abuse and violence against women by providing additional support for victims and a strategy which will challenge attitudes that tolerate violence or abusive behaviour towards women. * Take the so-called ‘legal highs’ like mephedrone out of circulation. The safety and protection of all children is a paramount concern. We have already changed the law in recent years to protect children further. Substantial law and guidance is in place for all services working with children. We will further improve child protection measures in Wales, with expert groups established to advise the Welsh Assembly Government. Work is also being done on serious case reviews in Wales and, in common with England, the arrangements to ensure that people who work with vulnerable children and adults are safe to do so are being strengthened by the implementation of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act. In addition, the Children and Families (Wales) Measure gives the Assembly Government more power to tackle child poverty and to provide more support to families to help and protect vulnerable children. As part of this, we will pioneer Integrated Family Support Teams, bringing together teams of social workers, family workers, substance misuse and health professionals to work directly with families with complex needs to help safeguard children and support parents to help them keep a child or children at home. There is another area where the rules need to be clearer – lending. If we have learnt anything over the last two years it is that irresponsible lending is economically dangerous and morally indefensible. Yet the credit card and loan companies still send out ‘credit card cheques’, guaranteed extra credit cards and guaranteed loans, especially to some of the poorest communities, without ever asking people whether they can afford the repayments. Too often they do it in areas where people own their own homes so that if it all goes wrong the credit company can repossess their home. That’s why we will bring in fairer rules to protect consumers from the credit companies. But we will also ensure that people in disadvantaged communities have access to responsible lending through the expansion of the credit union network. Over the lifetime of the next Parliament, as more affordable lending becomes available, we will clamp down on the interest rates and other fees charged by instant loan companies and payday or doorstep lenders, tackling the very high cost lending that hits low income communities hardest. We will provide free access to financial advice face to face, over the phone or on line for people across Wales through the ‘Money Made Clear’ services. We will make sure that school children across Wales learn about money and financial responsibility. Labour has a zero tolerance policy on violence and incitement against minorities. We are the party who legislated to criminalise incitement to racial hatred, then incitement to religious hatred, and most recently incitement to homophobic hatred. The law on homophobic hatred was watered down by Tory peers introducing a so-called ‘freedom of speech’ amendment. We will reverse this, invoking the Parliament Act if necessary to force it through. Binge drinking and public drinking have left many of Wales’ law-abiding citizens reluctant to venture into their town centre at night. We are banning irresponsible drinks promotions, and strengthening police powers to close down rowdy pubs and clubs, and we are cracking down on under-age and public drinking. We know that anti-social behaviour can cause as much damage to victims and communities as more serious crimes. There were no specific powers against anti-social behaviour before Labour came to power in 1997. Now there are ASBOs, parenting orders and other powers – and they are working. Nearly two thirds of perpetrators stop after the first intervention, and perceptions of ASB are at their lowest level for a decade. We will make full use of developing technology in CCTV and DNA matching: new weapons deployed to strengthen our fight against crime. We are proud of our record on civil liberties – and have taken the DNA profiles of children off the database and tightened the rules around the use of surveillance by councils and other public bodies – but we are also determined to give the police the tools they need to keep our streets safe. There are more criminals in prison in Wales not because crime is rising but because violent and serious offenders are going to prison for longer. We will take forward our plan to build a prison in North Wales. We will transfer more foreign prisoners to EU jails, and reduce the numbers of women, young people, and the mentally ill in prison. Any spare capacity this generates will reduce costs, but only as part of a broader long term strategy that has protecting the public at its heart. ### Immigration We are committed to an immigration system that works in the interests of the people of Britain, and promotes and protects British values. People need to know that the rules are fair, that coming to our country is a privilege and not a right, and that there is support for communities in dealing with the impact of change. Our borders are stronger than ever, with thousands more immigration officers and a new Border Agency with police-level powers, many based abroad stopping suspects before they travel here. 100 per cent of visas are now biometric, and new electronic border controls will be counting people in and out by the end of the year. Asylum claims are back down to early 1990s levels, with the cost to the taxpayer cut by half in the last six years. Genuine refugees will continue to receive protection. Our new Australian-style points based system is ensuring we get the migrants our economy needs, but no more. We will gradually tighten the criteria in line with the needs of the British economy and the values of British citizenship. Jobs are now advertised in jobcentre plus for 4 weeks, with more vacancies going to local workers; public procurement will in future give priority to local people. We will use the points-based system, closely coordinated with our skills approach, and electronic border controls to maintain downward pressure on all key economic routes except high-skilled workers and university-level students, so that as growth returns we see rising levels of employment and wages, not rising immigration. But we will do this through a flexible system not an arbitrary Tory quota which would harm business and damage growth. We recognise that the impact of migration is felt differently by different communities across Wales, and that rapid change can place pressures on housing and public services. The Labour-led Assembly Government will ensure that public services respond more effectively and will continue to support communities most affected by low civic engagement – places that are targeted by extremists for spreading unrest. Because we believe coming to our country is a privilege and not a right – we will break the automatic link between staying here for a set period and being able to settle or gain citizenship. In future, staying on will be dependent on the points-based system, and access to benefits and social housing will be reserved for British citizens and permanent residents, saving the taxpayer hundreds of millions each year. We will continue to emphasise the value we place on citizenship and the responsibilities as well as rights that come with it through the citizenship pledge and citizenship ceremony, and by strengthening the test of British values and traditions. ## Chapter 11: A future fair for all ### A future fair for all At this General Election, the people of Wales will make a big choice. A choice between building a future that is fair for all, or a change that puts the recovery at risk, threatens public services and makes life tougher for families. * Welsh Labour will secure the recovery – not put it at risk. * Welsh Labour will support new industries and future jobs. * Welsh Labour will protect frontline services – not cut them. * Welsh Labour will stand up for the many – not the few. Faced with a global recession and the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years, our choice was to take action, with job-boosting measures and extra help for families, businesses and homeowners. Today the economy is still recovering so we must maintain our support – not risk the recovery by cutting support now. As the economy recovers, we will halve the deficit over four years and we will do it fairly, protecting the key public services that people value. The Conservative approach is very different. The Tories threaten an age of austerity. Their plan for immediate cuts would choke off the recovery, leading to a decade of low growth and austerity. The Tories not only pose a risk to the recovery now, they have no credible plans for jobs and opportunity for the future. So this election is a big choice about the kind of future we want for Wales. The Conservatives threaten the wrong kind of change – a change you can’t afford. With Labour we can secure the recovery and build a future fair for all. ## Chapter 12: Labour’s 100 promises for Wales ### Labour’s 100 promises for Wales 1) Secure the recovery by supporting the economy and more than halve the deficit through renewed economic growth, fair taxes and cuts to low priority programmes. 2) Realise our stakes in publicly controlled banks to secure best value for money and reform the rules for banking to ensure no repeat of past irresponsibility, including through a global insurance levy. 3) Create UK Finance for Growth to provide capital for growing businesses and invest in the growing sectors of the future. 4) Build the economic infrastructure of the future through a Green Investment Bank, and universal access to broadband. 5) Encourage a culture of long-term commitment to sustainable company growth, making corporate takeovers harder through the requirement for a super-majority of two-thirds of shareholders. 6) We will continue to provide capital support for businesses in rural, semi-rural and urban areas. 7) We will support co-operatives and reform tax relief for employee share ownership. 8) Swansea University is benefiting from £30m investment, which should create up to 650 jobs for the knowledge economy. 9) Airbus is benefiting from £340m in UK Government loans for its factories in Filton and Broughton, North Wales. 10) A High Performance Computing Institute will be created with £44 million investment including £10 million from UK Strategic Investment Fund. 11) The Defence Technical College at St Athan will bring thousands of jobs to South Wales. 12) We will electrify the Great Western main line between London and Swansea. 13) Further improvements to rail services. 14) Invest £1 billion in superfast broadband technology to boost our global competitiveness in business and communications. 15) Roll out superfast broadband technology to 90% of the country, building on our universal service commitment to 2 megabit broadband by 2012. 16) Make Wales a leading provider of green energy, produced not only by wind, but also from biomass, marine and microgeneration. 17) Ensure that Welsh businesses continue to maximise opportunities from the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. 18) Work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 19) Assist over 100,000 households in Wales with heating and insulation measures. 20) Invest up to £350 million from Assembly and energy company money over three years in order to create low carbon economically resilient Welsh communities. 21) Roll out our new plans for a ‘People’s Bank’ using the Post Office network to rural areas. 22) Help rural areas respond to new market demands, develop land management techniques and diversify the economic base with the £570 million Wales Rural Development Plan. 23) Plant 100,000 hectares of new trees over the 20 years from 2012. 24) Invest £3 million in the Tidy Towns initiative. 25) Invest £17.4m over the next four years to ensure the Welsh tourism industry benefits from the latest digital technology developments. 26) Use European investment to sustain and diversify our rural economy. 27) Provide grants (through Skills Growth Wales), for high level and new technology training that will directly help to bring about growth in turnover, profit and/or employment. 28) Provide around £3K towards training for each individual for ‘higher end’ training. 29) Provide a flexible route for 2,000 16-24 year olds (through Pathways to Apprenticeships) to spend up to a year in full time education gaining knowledge and skills. 30) Provide targeted support (through the Young Recruits Programme) for another 1,000 16-24 year olds across Wales to access quality apprenticeship places, with a £50 per week contribution towards the wage costs of apprentices. 31) Offer a range of services (through GO Wales) to help students, graduates and businesses with work placements, work experience, funding for training and an online database of jobs. 32) Analyse (through the Task and Finish Group) our response to youth unemployment, how schemes can be simplified and what gaps there are in provision. 33) A new £40 a week Better Off in Work Guarantee. 34) Increase the National Minimum Wage at least in line with average earnings over the period to 2015. 35) Ensure that everyone is at least £40 a week better off in work than on welfare 36) Introduce a new ‘Father’s Month’ of paid leave in the first year of a child’s life. 37) Create a People’s Bank at the Post Office and a Universal Service Obligation on banks to serve every community. 38) Work through our new Efficiency and Innovation board to ensure that public services in Wales are delivering the highest quality services in the most efficient way. 39) Use new powers in the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 to hold local authorities to account on the quality of their services. 40) Encourage greater participation in the delivery of local council services by ensuring the voluntary sector, business and community groups have a new scrutiny role. 41) Help 50,000 Welsh workers on the National Minimum Wage. 42) Continue the increased level of cold weather payments, 161,300 of which were made in Wales this year. 43) Help 377,000 children in Wales with the increased child element of the child tax credit. 44) Maintain the Child Trust Fund accounts that have benefitted 179,000 children in Wales, 68,000 of whom have received the additional payment award. 45) Pioneer Integrated Family Support Teams to work directly with families with complex needs to help safeguard children. 46) Continue to work to extend the powers of the National Assembly, whether through framework provisions in UK Bills or Legislative Competence Orders. 47) Maintain a strong and well-funded BBC Wales and S4C, with good Welsh and English language Welsh production budgets. 48) Ensure a new news service for channel 3. 49) Continue to invest in Welsh medium education, increasing funding to a range of organisations which are promoting and securing the language. 50) Legislating in the Assembly to deliver new rights for Welsh speakers in the delivery of services. 51) Ensure fair funding for Wales. 52) Work towards a referendum on further powers for the National Assembly and achieve a successful campaign for a “Yes” vote. 53) Publish the first national standards for what you can expect from your local police. This will include response times; time on the beat, and monthly beat meetings. 54) Set out much clearer ways for people to know how to complain or seek redress against the police. 55) Roll out the National Victims’ Service for all victims of crime across England and Wales. 56) Tackle the problem of domestic abuse and violence against women by providing additional support for victims and challenging attitudes that tolerate violence or abusive behaviour towards women. 57) Keep the ban on serious drugs. 58) Maintain the numbers of police in Wales. 59) Take the so-called ‘legal highs’ like mephedrone out of circulation. 60) Ensure that people in disadvantaged communities have access to responsible lending through the expansion of the credit union network. 61) Provide free access to financial advice face to face, over the phone or on line for people across Wales through the Money Made Clear services. 62) Make sure that school children across Wales learn about money and financial responsibility. 63) Bring in fairer rules to protect consumers from the credit companies. 64) Re-establish the link between basic state Pension and earnings from 2012. 65) Abolish the default retirement age, enabling people to decide for themselves how long they want to keep on working. 66) Maintain the winter fuel payments this year at £250 for over 60s and £400 for over 80s. 67) By the end of the next Parliament we will ensure that the right to flexible working is extended to all older people. We will consult on the age at which this right should apply. 68) End age discrimination in the Welsh NHS. 69) Help 680,800 people with winter fuel payments benefit. 70) Help more than 164,030 Welsh pensioners with the Pension Credit. 71) Encourage local authorities to expand free swimming. 72) Maintain free bus passes. 73) Fully fund a new all-Wales service to support armed services personnel experiencing mental health problems. 74) Ensure the best quality training for our armed services including the state-of-the-art St Athan Technical College. 75) Keep free prescriptions. 76) Keep free parking at NHS hospitals in Wales. 77) Provide every cancer patient with a key worker. 78) Improve access to GPs’ surgeries. 79) Encourage healthy lifestyles amongst our young people. 80) Protect our NHS staff at work. 81) Keep free school breakfasts. 82) Ensure more money reaches Welsh schools, teachers and pupils. 83) Improve collaboration across Wales between schools, colleges and universities. 84) Ensure key public bodies including the NHS, local councils and Education Authorities never take a decision on how they spend their money without considering whether they are giving everyone an equal chance. 85) Bind the work of higher education far more closely into businesses and employers. 86) Eliminate child poverty by 2020. 87) Secure free, high-quality, targeted childcare. 88) Provide more places for children to play safely. 89) Introduce a National Literacy Programme aimed at 7-11 year olds. 90) Through Coleg Ffederal, expand opportunities for higher education to be delivered through the medium of Welsh. 91) Hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote for the House of Commons. 92) Hold a referendum on replacing the House of Lords with a democratic and accountable Second Chamber with a full contingent elected directly from Wales. 93) Improve citizenship education for young people followed by a free vote in Parliament on reducing the voting age to 16. 94) Create a Statutory Register of Lobbyists, with MPs banned form working for lobbying companies and required to seek approval for paid outside appointments. 95) Introduce a right to recall MPs where Parliament has failed to act against proven financial corruption. 96) Introduce fixed term parliaments and chart a course towards a written constitution. 97) We will enhance the successful Wales for Africa programme. 98) As the world’s first Fairtrade nation we will press other nations to adopt Fairtrade policies too. 99) Fight for the best possible funding from Europe. 100) Supplement from the UK government the money provided by the European Commission to Wales.