Prime Minister Andy Burnham has chosen Port Talbot for his first official visit to Wales since entering Downing Street, and is spending Thursday with workers and apprentices in the steel town.
Number 10 said he is discussing reindustrialisation, jobs and the cost of living on the latest leg of his summer tour. Its announcement did not name the destination; the Welsh Government confirmed the visit is to Port Talbot in a statement from the Deputy First Minister, who is joining him.
The visit comes after the Prime Minister announced he will bring together the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland and the First and deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland in October, at a meeting of the National Economic Council.
Downing Street said the council, which Mr Burnham revived in his first week in office, will aim to strengthen collaboration between the UK Government and the devolved governments on what it called driving good growth in every postcode.
Mr Burnham said: “I am in South Wales today because the answers to the UK’s challenges will not come from an echo chamber. They will come from the places that know their own strengths, and from a government willing to listen and then act.
“Good jobs in every community, in every part of the UK. That is what I want every leader in this country signed up to.”
‘Port Talbot knows better than most that change comes at a cost’
Deputy First Minister Sioned Williams said she was pleased to be visiting Port Talbot with the Prime Minister, calling it “a positive example of governments working together to improve people’s lives”, with co-operation on energy and industrial strategy essential “if Wales is to seize the opportunities of the green transition and create well-paid jobs for the future”.
“Port Talbot knows better than most that change comes at a cost,” she said. “Local families have shown remarkable resilience through a difficult few years, but resilience can only take a community so far. People deserve to see real opportunities returning to the town.”
That meant sustained investment in Welsh industry, she said, and “a guarantee that Wales receives its fair share of the UK Government’s Steel Fund to support workers and communities through this transition”.
Ms Williams also pressed UK ministers on energy costs, calling for an energy social tariff, action on standing charges she said are among the highest in the UK, and support for rural households reliant on heating oil.
‘Wales doesn’t need another listening exercise’
Not everyone rolled out a welcome. David Chadwick, the Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson and MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, which takes in the upper Swansea Valley, said Labour “ran Wales for 26 years until May” and had “utterly failed to build the prosperous Welsh economy it repeatedly promised”.
He said that over that time wages in Wales “remained the lowest of the UK nations” and child poverty was the highest.
If the Prime Minister was serious about easing the burden on Welsh families, he said, his government must deliver on “fixing our broken energy market, standing up for our farmers, properly funding rural services and giving Wales its fair share of infrastructure investment”, adding: “Wales doesn’t need another Labour listening exercise. Wales needs action.”
A summer tour reaches Wales, with the wildfires in the briefing notes
Number 10 pointed to recent measures it says are already benefiting Wales, including the cut to VAT on household electricity bills and what it described as action against subscription traps.
It also said the UK Government had worked with partners in Wales to make military assistance available during emergencies where required, including during this summer’s wildfires, which stretched Welsh fire crews through what the fire service called weeks of unprecedented demand.
The National Economic Council was first set up in 2008 in response to the financial crisis. Downing Street said its revival reflects the Prime Minister’s view that growth requires the same urgency, with business leaders and trade unions brought in where their expertise helps.
The summer tour has taken in Harlow, Barrow, Bath, Sheffield, Glasgow, Portsmouth, Dover and stops across the Midlands and the north of England, with Number 10 saying the Prime Minister has heard from families, small business owners, police officers, farmers and apprentices.
Parliament returns from its summer recess next week.
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