TUC Conference Speech

Conference, it is often said that a man measures his own life by his father’s strides - and in 1935 my father’s strides took him out of Wales. It was the usual story then - that you had to ‘get out to get on’.
My aim has always been to create a Wales where talented young people don’t have to leave to get on. And for me that is a Wales which embraces true Labour movement values;
A belief in social justice, and the creation of a fairer, more equal society
A belief in solidarity and working together for the common good
A belief in personal integrity and honesty
A commitment to public service – and, above all, valuing those who provide those services

Where did my values come from? In the first place from the experience of my grandfather, a train driver on the old Great Western Railway in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, who was also a staunch member of the NUR. And when he died at a very young age, leaving my grandmother and three young children behind, it was a pension from the union that helped to keep their heads above water.

And it was also the experience of my Mum & Dad - a nurse and a teacher - who like thousands of other young people to leave Wales in the Depression years of the early 1930s to find work. It was also their commitment to public service that was part of their inheritance to me.
These values are as relevant today as they were then - values which continue to shape and form my policy making today,

So in “Measuring Strides” - what steps have we taken to create this new Wales? This conference takes place against an economic background that remains one of the most favourable Wales has faced in living history. The Welsh economy is outstripping the rest of the UK in almost every aspect of economic activity
Since devolution Wales has seen the biggest fall in unemployment in the UK with an unemployment rate now lower than the UK. Who would have believed that 10 years ago - let alone 20 years ago when many of us in this conference marched in solidarity with the steel workers and miners? 122,000 jobs have been created in Wales since 1999
42% less unemployment now than 6 years ago. Twice the fall in the rest of the UK. We now have the lowest unemployment in Wales for 30 years and there are more people in work in Wales than ever before. And this is no accident - France and Germany currently both have unemployment rates of over 10%.

And, for the past two years, average earnings in Wales have risen faster than the UK as a whole. You wouldn’t get those increases if all the new jobs were ‘McRubbish’ jobs, as some have claimed.

Increasingly they are well-paid and highly skilled employment.
Conference, in Wales we are raising our game - and not just on the rugby field! Delivering on European Funds Conference, leadership is not just about talking tough or taking tough decisions - it is also about seeing those decisions through and delivering change. And as a Minister I don’t promise what I can’t deliver - but I do deliver what I promise. Two years ago I took the decision to take the WEFO in-house - to shake it up - and ensure it delivered - as it was always intended to - for our poorest communities in Wales.

Today - WEFO is performing as it always should have and has now delivered over £3 billion investment of European funding.
The results? Over 106,000 jobs created or safeguarded so far.
The result is that - together with our other successful financial investment programmes from Bangor to Bargoed, from Barry to Broughton, we are now seeing levels of public and private investment in Wales we have not seen for a generation.
Massive investments that are changing the lives of the people of Wales - the people that we in this conference all represent.
Investment in innovative projects such as the pioneering £50million Institute of Life Science investment at Swansea University which in partnership with IBM, is transforming the way we think and the way we do business.

This world class medical research establishment is based on partnership - with world class Welsh academic institutions working with world class companies to deliver new medical solutions for age old global problems.

And later today I will be announcing a major £3 million Objective 1 investment programme for Rhyl, regenerating one of our poorest communities in Wales, creating employment opportunities and improving the quality for local people.

Delivery - this is what we are about - delivery for the people everyone in this conference represents. Our economic stability creates the right platform to continue to deliver for Wales and build my vision of the ‘Dragon Economy, ‘a knowledge-driven economy in Wales, an economy based on confidence, ideas, innovation, skills and quality - and of course partnership.

Now businesses, global companies repeatedly tell me that Wales is the best place to do business. Why do they say that? When I visited Washington DC in the USA a few years ago I met Dr Sam Bodman, Deputy Secretary of Commerce. And he said that the investment that his company had made in Wales was the best investment they had ever made. When I asked him why he said that? He said it was simple - because of the quality of the workforce: the most highly skilled, most committed and adaptable of any they had.

And that response is replicated everywhere I go - from Georgia Pacific near Maesteg, through GE Engines at Nantgarw and DARA at St Athan to Airbus in Broughton. This is why we are working to drive forward the skills agenda - the currency of the 21st century - working with both employers and trade union to make sure our people in Wales are equipped with the skills and know-how for our knowledge-driven economy.

That is why last year I set up the Manufacturing Task and Finish Group - made up of union and employer representatives. Because as a Government we are committed to a strong and vibrant manufacturing sector here in Wales. It accounts for a larger proportion of our wealth than any other part of the UK. That is why we invest nearly two-thirds of our total grant assistance as a government into companies in the manufacturing sector.

And I set up the Task Force to explore how we can improve and deliver targeted support for our manufacturing sector in Wales, particularly the need for continuing investment in skills and training across this crucial sector - vital in the face of the intense global competition we are increasingly faced with.

And I would publicly like to pay tribute to the work of the trade union representatives on the Task Force, including Felicity Williams (Wales TUC), Allan Garley (GMB), Jim Hancock (TGWU) and Cath Speight (Amicus). Total annual Welsh public sector bill for goods and services is £4 billion. I have set up the Business Procurement Taskforce to examine how we can establish a level playing field for Welsh-based companies to enable them to be able win more of this business and create more employment. I am delighted that Alan Garley of the GMB is a member of this taskforce. To maintain and build on this momentum we have to invest in our transport system.

That’s why at the end of last year I announced an £8 billion, 15 year programme to develop a 21st century transport system for Wales including going ahead with the new M4 south of Newport. But we are not just investing in roads. We are committed to a vibrant public transport system in Wales.

On the rail, I am delighted to say, both as a Minister and especially as the grandson of a train driver that for the first time since the Beeching cuts of the early 1960s we are reopening passenger lines in Wales: with vital new rail links for the Vale of Glamorgan line which I am opening in a couple of weeks time (by the way Brian, Keith and Felicity the invitation is in the post!) and the Ebbw Vale line. Not only opening new lines - but investing in and expanding existing services - £50million investment to increase capacity and improve services on our Cardiff Valley Lines as well as massive investments to improve the safety of workers and passengers on our north Wales stations.
It has involved some hard decisions - not least on the new M4.
But I think they have been the right decisions for Wales,
Right decisions backed up with the right tools - the Transport Wales Bill, which was introduced to the House of Commons last week will enable us to build on the solid progress we have made in the crucial area of delivering for the first time an integrated transport system for Wales. A long-held goal I know for this conference.
So I believe that as a Government we are delivering for Wales, for our economy and for our transport system, but above all for our people and communities.

But we have to keep raising the bar of achievement because we want the very best for Wales. To do that we need a Welsh public service which is best in class. A Welsh public service which is nimble, flexible and ‘can do’.

Conference, I have occasionally spoken about some of the Quango leaders who used to regard their own pet projects as 'core' activities and our spreading prosperity agenda as somehow 'peripheral'. I repeatedly warned them that if they thought they could keep the old Wales, the comfortable status quo, then they had better think again.
They, and others - including apparently some Professors here in Wales - didn't seem to listen at the time - but I think they do now!
Conference, I will let nothing stand in the way of radical progress with democratic control. Our new economic powerhouse must be fit for purpose in building a 21st century economy for Wales.
The WDA and the Tourist Board - and indeed ELWa - can't just be absorbed into an old style civil service. We must create something new and something better. An organisation which enables Wales to continue to prosper.

There is massive potential in the excellent people we have in our civil service and in the WDA, the Tourist Board and ELWa but I believe we need a new organisation with a new culture to be able to fully realise that potential. We also need new ideas. And we must be businesslike and citizen centred, democratically accountable and absolutely focussed on delivery. It is a challenge for us all and I know many in the Welsh public service and beyond are up for that challenge.
The merger presents a unique opportunity for a step change in the delivery of public sector services in Wales. But it goes further - whilst as a government we will continue to provide strong leadership, to be truly effective, the public sector has to work in partnership with the trade unions, the private and voluntary sectors to achieve this step change.
Earlier this week I announced the outcome of the 12-week ASPB merger consultation - and I would like to pay tribute to the role the trade unions have played throughout the process, both as key stakeholders and as employee representatives. We made a commitment to do that and I believe we have lived up to that commitment. And I know that the trade unions have held up the way we as a government have conducted this merger as an exemplar of how it should be done - through consultation with the unions and in partnership.

A great model: modern unions contributing to the creation of a modern public service. That strong positive union voice is obviously important in all sectors and all industries - but it’s vital in creating the new economic powerhouse. Let me just give one example of how important this new Welsh public service will be - in the Heads of the Valleys. We all know the challenges: long term economic decline, unemployment, unacceptable rates of economic inactivity, ill health and the horrendous impact all of this has had on whole communities. But there is nothing inevitable about decline in the Heads of the Valleys. These are communities that built the wealth of modern Wales - they have done it before, they can do it again. Some good progress has been made - particularly on unemployment - but deeply entrenched challenges remain. That is why I launched the 15-year “Heads of the Valleys” programme at the end of March with £140 million of additional funding to complement the £1 billion of annual investment we are currently making in the region.

But again my message is clear. And it is not just about money. Because it is only through vision and leadership we can deliver and only though partnership can we meet these challenges and realise the potential of these communities. It is through working together we can all achieve more than by working separately. After all the changes and progress, after all these decades, that old Labour Movement maxim still holds true today - ‘Unity is strength’!

The massive investment we are making presents a major opportunity to really make an impact on the lives and life chances of our people in Heads of the Valleys communities. And I for one do not intend to waste that opportunity.

Conference, as a movement we have made remarkable progress and we are not without our challenges, but time after time, as a government we have proved that we are more than able, more than capable and more than determined to work in partnership with yourselves to overcome these challenges such as our response to the devastating Corus job losses in 2001, or more recently in our response to the collapse of MG Rover.

In fact, as Andy Richards of the T & G, has publicly said - without the Assembly Government support and the establishment of Accelerate Wales five years ago following the previous Rover difficulties then the impact of the recent Rover collapse would have been much, much worse in Wales.

Our response to these situations I believe has always been effective and practical, but above all, we have responded in partnership. As a lifelong trade union member and with experience of managing change in the manufacturing industry, I know and value the benefits of real partnership. In the difficult times we work together to support our people and to create new opportunities for them to retrain and find new employment paths.

Conference - together we are creating a dynamic, innovative and successful Wales. A Wales based on partnership, where employees are valued, opportunities are created and enterprise is supported.
A lot has changed in the 70 years since my parents left Wales. Many of our young people no longer have “to get out to get on.”
But some things have remained constant:
Our values, principles and an absolute belief in the true value of partnership. Unity really is strength.

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