Ieuan V Rhodri

Ieuan v Rhodri

According to press reports there was an almighty row in the Assembly yesterday when Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones gave Rhodri Morgan a roasting on the Government’s appalling economic record in West Wales and the Valleys, Wales’ Objective 1/Convergence fund areas. Rhodri’s rebuttal was that Plaid was essentially miss-interpreting data.

In the public interest therefore please find below a GVA table which shows data on an all Wales basis; West Wales and the Valleys; and East Wales in % terms compared to the UK average. The table was compiled by the ONS i.e the Government’s own statisticians.

GVA per head indices (UK =100).

1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Wales 84 79 79 78 78 78 78

West Wales & Valleys 74 66 66 65 65 65 N.A.

East Wales 102 100 101 100 100 100 N.A.

Source: ONS 2006.

What seems pretty clear is that wealth levels in Wales’ poorest areas has stagnated; that the trend is downward; and that GVA in most of Wales lies at less than 2/3 of the UK average.

To put things in context, West Wales and the Valleys is the poorest part in the whole of the UK.

Is this what Labour call a proud economic legacy?