Four Summits to climb the ‘worst slump for a century’

There’s plenty of political argument about what – if anything – the Assembly can do to counter the current recession.

There is not even any agreement whether the admission by Ed Balls, for so long then-Chancellor Gordon Brown’s chief economic adviser, that we may be entering the worst financial slump for a century was a statement of fact or round one for the next Westminster election.

Even taking on board the political cat-calls from both Tories and Lib Dems, it seems that the coalition government has made something of a hit with its series of Economic Summits and its launch of the companies’ aid programme Pro-Act.

The question must be – how much of a hit ?

Pro-Act offers grants to firms who run into trouble; the money avoids staff having to be laid off and enables them to undergo further training – on the days they have no work –  to ready them for the economic upturn when it comes.

£48m is said to be available. In addition, the Assembly is extending the spheres on which Objective One European cash can be spent. Here we are talking of over £100m.

Opposition politicians and ever-critical journalists are keen to pick holes in what the government is doing. What is the next bit of ammunition in your locker, Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones was asked. “We are considering further steps,” was his answer to this time-waster.

What was more interesting is the refusal of Cardiff to take the Treasury line. Do you follow the Treasury line ? “We have our own advisers here,” said IWJ.

The Welsh answers to the downturn are attracting some interest in London, it seems. Pro-Act has attracted the attention of Mr Brown, say both IWJ and his boss Rhodri Morgan.

And Wales is the only country to set up a series of Economic Summits linking businesses, trade unions, the government and the local authorities. The meetings are private, so we don’t fully know what goes on inside.

But it seems that Pro-Act – which takes its name from the React programme for training, also run by the Assembly’s education department – is one of the results.  In its first months, Pro-Act has been focused on the automotive industry, but it seems likely that it will be swiftly rolled out into other sectors.

The first company to use Pro-Act money is in Welshpool, and is likely to avert 100 redundancies.

Both opposition parties are, of course, sceptical. The Tories said the four Economic Summits have “so far failed to make a significant difference”.

Which is really no surprise bearing in mind the world-wide magnitude of the crisis.

And the Lib Dems condemned lack of action, with “no major initiatives” resulting from the four summits. The Lib Dem preference was for action by local councils – as you would expect, bearing in mind that local government is one of the party’s political target areas.

The party points to £1.2m found by Lib Dem-minority controlled Cardiff.

But Cardiff’s the biggest council in Wales, and has something like an infrastructure to deliver.

The Lib Dems prefer council action because the problems are so different in the different parts of Wales. But the councils are also very different throughout the country.

And some councils are less able to give help than others. Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams almost admitted this with her complaint that her council – Powys – is short of money because of the financial settlement from the Assembly.

So, the Lib Dems might not have found the answer. But theirs is a valuable pointer which should be adopted by well-run councils.

And perhaps someone would supply a list of which councils are not well run ?