Legislation paving the way for a tax on tourism will be considered in the next five years, Mark Drakeford has revealed in his five-year plan.
The First Minister has included a proposal to allow local authorities to impose a levy on visitors - most commonly imposed on nights spent in hotels, B&Bs or self catered holiday lets - in his programme for government.
The document details the 100 areas Mr Drakeford says his cabinet will take joint responsibility for over the next five years.
The Welsh Government is billing the proposals as "an ambitious plan to build a stronger, greener, fairer Wales for everyone" but it includes proposals on a wide range of issues from housing to education, employment and roads. Many of the ideas have already been trailed.
Key promises include:
Consult on legislation permitting local authorities to raise a tourism levy
- Making some commonly-littered plastics illegal
- A target for 30% of people to work remotely
Giving everyone under 25 the offer of work, education, training, or self-employment
Creating a national forest from north to south Wales
Looking at reforming the school day and the school year
A pilot of Universal Basic Income
Make 20mph the default speed limit in residential areas and ban pavement parking wherever possible
Seek to reform council tax to ensure a fairer system for all
Establishing the Football Museum, National Contemporary Art Gallery and Museum for north Wales
In the Senedd on Tuesday, Mr Drakeford said a tourism tax would benefit the industry in Wales.
He said: "A tourism tax, properly done, will benefit the industry because what it will allow those local authorities to do is to invest in the things that make those areas attractive to tourists in the first place. At the moment it is those local resident populations who pay for everything. They pay for the toilets, they pay for the car parks, they pay for the local museum, they pay for the local festival—anything that is put there to attract people into the area, it is those local residents who bear the cost in full."
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The 17 page document lists things that the First Minister and cabinet will take responsibility for. It then divides the pledges made in the party's manifesto into areas under each minister, such as health, economy and climate change.
The plan has already been criticised by opposition politicians. Plaid Cymru say it is "thin in detail and absent of targets [and] almost certainly does not provide the new start that Wales so desperately needs". The Conservatives say “Families, workers and businesses across the country will therefore be alarmed and concerned that this 17-page document is the sum total of Labour’s plan to get Wales on the road to recovery after the pandemic."
What the document contains:
Health
"The coronavirus pandemic has shown our health service at its best, but it has also created extraordinary pressures on staff and services. We want to create a 21st century NHS by investing in the post-Covid recovery, tackling health inequalities, improving mental health provision and focussing on prevention. We will continue to support our health workers, protect the NHS, deepen the integration of services, improve accessibility, reduce carbon in the design of new facilities, extend the use of new technologies and support people to live healthy lives".
- Establish a new medical school in North Wales.
- Provide treatments which have been delayed by the pandemic
- Deliver better access to doctors, nurses, dentists and other health professionals
- Reform primary care, bringing together GP services with pharmacy, therapy, housing, social care, mental health, community and third sector
- Prioritise investment in mental health and service redesign to improve prevention, tackle stigma and promote a no wrong door approach to mental health support.
- Roll out child and adolescent mental health services ‘in-reach’ in schools across Wales
- Introduce an all-Wales framework to roll out social prescribing to tackle isolation
- Review patient pathway planning and hospice funding
- Develop an HIV action plan for Wales
- Introduce an autism statutory code of practice on the delivery of autism services
Protect, re-build and develop our services for vulnerable people
"The demands on our care services continue to grow as the demography of Wales changes. To meet this need, we will transform our existing care services into a new flexible, responsive and better integrated system which helps people live meaningful and independent lives for longer. This system will meet the needs of our most vulnerable citizens, and will support those children, young people and families who face the greatest challenges."
- Welsh Government promise to pay care workers the living wage
- Increase apprenticeships in care and recruit more Welsh speakers
- Pursue a sustainable UK solution so that care is free for all at the point of need and/or consult on a potential Wales-only solution to meet long-term care needs
- Support innovative housing development to meet care needs
- Fund childcare for more families where parents are in education and training
- Continue to support flagship Flying Start programmes
- Prevent families breaking up by funding advocacy services for parents whose children are at risk of coming into care
- Provide additional specialist support for children with complex needs who maybe on the edge of care
Economy
"We will address the damage to our economy caused by decades of austerity, Brexit and the impact of coronavirus to provide decent jobs, relevant skills and new training opportunities. We will work in partnership to build an economy based on sustainable jobs that will take us forward into the next century. We will support Welsh businesses to create new jobs, find new export markets and invest in the sustainable green industries of tomorrow".
- Deliver the Young Persons Guarantee, giving everyone under 25 the offer of work, education, training, or self-employment
- Create 125,000 all-age apprenticeships
- Put social partnership on a statutory footing through the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill
- Use the new network of Disabled People’s Employment Champions to help close the gap between disabled people and the rest of the working population
- Strengthen Economic Contract
- Support the Wales TUC proposals for union members to become Green Representatives in the workplace
- Support the creation of a Community Bank for Wales
- Develop a Tidal Lagoon Challenge and support ideas that can make Wales a world centre of emerging tidal technologies
- Enable town centres to become more agile economically by helping businesses to work co-operatively, increase their digital offer and support local supply chains, including local delivery services
- Seek a 30% target for working remotely
Greener economy
"Devolution gives us the opportunity to re-build our economy and develop a modern and productive infrastructure which acts as an engine for inclusive and sustainable growth. We will create an economy which works for everyone, grounded in our values of progressive change – going forward together in the spirit of cooperation, not competition. New digital, economic and transport infrastructures will re-build and re-energise our communities."
- Launch a new 10-year Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan for a zero-carbon economy
- Deliver the Digital Strategy for Wales and upgrade digital and communications infrastructure
- Create a modern legislative basis for transport in Wales
- Lift the ban on local authorities setting up new municipal bus companies
- Legislate to modernise the taxi and private vehicle sector and address the problems of cross-bordering
- Implement new Wales Transport Strategy
- Build on the concessionary travel scheme for older people and look at how fair fares can encourage integrated travel
- Work towards new target of 45% of journeys by sustainable modes by 2040, setting more stretching goals where possible
- Take forward the Burns Commission report for Newport - the replacement for the M4 relief road
- Develop a new major routes fund to improve the attractiveness and biodiversity of areas alongside major transport routes in Wales
Put climate and nature in 'everything we do'
"We have the vision and ambition to address the climate and nature emergency. We will deliver a green transformation which starts in our local communities, with a focus on local green spaces, locally-grown sustainable food, locally-generated renewable energy and avoiding waste. We will make sure that nature and the climate are on the agenda of every public service and private sector business, and we will integrate positive action for nature into more of our economic activity."
- Legislate to abolish the use of more commonly littered, single use plastics
- Introduce an extended producer responsibility scheme to incentivise waste reduction by businesses
- Create a National Forest to extend from the North of Wales to the South.
- Harness the economic, cultural, and recreational potential of the National Forest as part of progress towards a sustainable timber industry.
- Create a new system of farm support that will maximise the protective power of nature through farming
- Develop a Wales Community Food Strategy
- Introduce legislation to deal with the legacy of centuries of mining and ensure coal tip safety; strengthening local authority powers to protect the public and the environment
- Introduce a Clean Air Act for Wales, consistent with World Health Organisation guidance and extend the provision of air quality monitoring
- A new National Park to cover the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley
- Support 80 re-use and repair hubs in town centres
- Uphold policy of opposing the extraction of fossil fuels in Wales, both on land and in Welsh waters, using the powers available to us
- Expand arrangements to create or significantly enhance green spaces
Education
"We will make sure nobody in Wales is left behind after the coronavirus pandemic, repairing the damage done over the last year. We will continue a programme of reform which includes our world-leading curriculum, vital funding and governance changes in tertiary education, stronger leadership at every level of the education system and a commitment to lifelong learning. We will work with children and young people, their families and the education workforce to ensure the best outcomes for learners, particularly the most vulnerable. "
- Fund up to 1,800 additional school tutoring staff
- Build on School Holiday Enrichment Programme
- Continue to meet the rise in demand for Free School Meals resulting from the pandemic and review the eligibility criteria, extending entitlement as far as resources allow
- Invest in the learning environment of community schools, co-locating key services, and securing stronger engagement with parents and carers outside traditional hours
- Explore reform of the school day and the school year
- Develop a sustainable model for supply teaching that has fair work at its heart
- Take the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill through the Senedd
Diversity and equality
"We will continue to work together for positive change, recognising our common humanity whilst celebrating diversity and difference. We will challenge the structures of power and social relations that create fundamental disparities for our protected communities, including addressing the systemic causes of racism, hateful behaviours and other forms of discrimination, working together with progressive networks and organisations. We will aim to make Wales an anti-racist country, as well as the safest place in Europe to be a woman, support our disabled and LGBTQ+ communities and tackle societal inequality."
- Implement and fund the commitments made in our Race Equality Action Plan
- Explore legislation to address pay gaps based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, and other forms of discrimination
- Ensure public bodies and those receiving public funding address pay disparities
- Pilot an approach to the Basic Income
- Ensure the history and culture of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities are properly represented by investing further in the cultural sector and museum network
- Make Welsh public transport system more accessible to disabled people
- Continue strong partnership with voluntary organisations across the range of responsibilities
- Implement targets around Gender Budgeting
- Strengthen the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy to include a focus on violence against women in the street and workplace as well as the home
Welsh language, tourism and sports
"The arts, tourism and sport are of vital importance to both the Welsh economy and to our national life, and the Welsh language is a national treasure which belongs to every individual in Wales. We will widen access to our heritage, harness the creativity and sporting ability of people in Wales, and ensure that these industries have the support they need to maintain their proper place on the world stage."
- Establish a National Music Service
- Consult on legislation to allow councils to raise a tourism levy
- Legislate to strengthen and increase Welsh language education provision.
- Create a Welsh language Communities Housing Plan
- Invest in theatres and museums, including committing to Theatr Clwyd, establishing the Football Museum and the National Contemporary Art Gallery
- Promote equal access to sports and support young and talented athletes and grassroots clubs
- Support the application to identify the slate landscape of North West Wales as a World Heritage Site
- Develop plans for a Museum of North Wales
City centres
"We will continue to build climate-secure homes for the future and develop Welsh businesses to support our building industry. We will continue to support our partners in local government and invest in local public services and local democracy – the glue that binds communities together. We will support Wales’ long tradition of volunteering, local charities, faith groups and community organisations, and ensure that communities can thrive as centres of social exchange, leisure, sport and culture."
- Build 20,000 new low carbon social homes for rent
- Fundamentally reform homelessness services to focus on prevention and rapid rehousing
- Support cooperative housing, community-led initiatives, and community land trusts
- Create a timber based industrial strategy that can develop and sustain the high value production and processing of Welsh wood
- Decarbonise more homes through retrofit, delivering quality jobs, training and innovation using local supply chains
- Improve building safety so that people feel safe and secure in their homes
- Explore where services and contracts can sustainably and affordably be brought back into a strengthened public sector
- Ensure that each region in Wales has effective and democratically accountable means of developing their future economies
- Make 20mph the default speed limit in residential areas
- Ban pavement parking wherever possible
Constitution
"Wales is a confident and outward-looking country, and we know that issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and globalisation cannot be solved without our friends and allies in Europe and beyond. We will build and strengthen our global relationships, celebrating different cultures and embracing internationalism. We will work for a new and successful United Kingdom, pressing the UK Government for reform"
- Establish an independent, standing commission to consider the constitutional future of Wales
- Promote and support the work of the UK-wide Constitutional Commission being established by the UK Labour Party
- Establish a Peace Academy –Academi Heddwch – in Wales
- Seek to reform council tax
- Reform local government elections
- Put in place a £65 million international learning exchange programme
- Reinvigorate twinning relationships across the EU through a Young People’s Twinning Fund
