Solving Wales’ Housing Crisis

Crisis, what crisis?! The average age of first-time buyers is 37 and rising, 90,000+ households on social housing waiting lists across Wales, increasing levels of homelessness, many older home-owners living in unsuitable housing without adequate income to repair…

A Conservative Future?

The recent Assembly elections saw the Welsh Conservatives make real progress. We became the second largest party in Wales. We elected more female Assembly Members than ever before, and more constituency Members. One in four voters put their trust…

A new tobacco control plan for Wales

Firstly, I want to pay tribute to former Health Minister Edwina Hart for her support and commitment to developing the Wales Tobacco Control Action Plan. The Tobacco Control Action represents a significant achievement for public…

Co-operation and Mutuality: Back in Vogue

For some of the younger contributors to this Blog the name Harold Wilson may hold as much resonance as Neville Chamberlain has for me. As Prime Minister in the 1960s and 1970s he attracted a bad press amongst…

Education in denial

The powers that be have been quick to rubbish BBC Wales’s publication of schools’ value added results and GCSE results by school families. Suspiciously quick, in fact, because although…

Bring on a new age of co-operatives

Political parties shared common ground on their commitment to co-operatives during the Welsh election.

There was a welcome cross-party consensus in the manifestos about the value of co-operatives in growing the Welsh economy. Welsh Labour acknowledged how mutuals, social enterprises and co-operatives have a…

Are we protecting the vulnerable?

Support for the most vulnerable citizens in Wales has been a proud political and social hallmark of previous Welsh Assembly Government’s.

However, as the public spending cuts bite, it is essential that WAG continues to ensure that…

The Hardest Hit: fighting cuts to disability benefits

“I dragged myself out of bed at 5 o’clock this morning to come to this protest because I feel it’s very important that disabled people across Wales and Great…

Keeping an eye on the westminster ball

Yesterday the Bevan Foundation launched a London branch at a reception in the House of Commons attended by around 70 people – a number of MPs along with journalists, Welsh organisations, academics, London-based think tanks and more.

Why? Because we recognise that not withstanding the Assembly’s new powers, many of…

Isn’t it about time..?

The new equal pay duty for Wales will require all affected public authorities in Wales to examine their workforce data to identify who works where in the organisation, their employment conditions and require an action plan to tackle gender…