It may not be the cleanest of solutions, but such an apporach would save funding and at the same time, value regional variations, both in terms of politcs, culture and social needs.

With regards to Mark’s statement that “22 local authorities is crazy”, I couldn’t agree more. This topic is what we are currently discussing on Betsan Powys’ blog “Extraordinary times” (I am ‘Drachenfire’ there). I believe that the five counties Cledwyn Hughes recommended in his 1967 White Paper makes the most sense. I think the 1994 Act creating 22 authorities was more or less a step backwards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/betsanpowys/2010/01/extraordinary_times.html?s_sync=1#comments

I am setting up my second business in the technology sector in Cardiff and consider myself an entrepreneur trying to create high value, well paid jobs. Access to skills, capital and experience is key and I’ll try and find it where ever it is. To make this easier I believe we need strong, large, diverse, tolerant and multicultural city regions with high quality urban environments able to attract skilled, ambitious, creative and, yes, “entrepreneurial” people from all over the world. We need more people starting more businesses. We have seen signs of this. For example Cardiff and SE Wales has a growing financial service sector led by the likes of Admiral, there have been some notable success in biotech, media, etc. This re-generation results from the collective efforts of enterprising companies and people and not as a result of a direct government programmes. Five year plans don’t work!

I am not bashing front end public servants in health, education, etc. I will though, bash those policy makers and senior managers in the public sector who have overseen the waste of £MMs over the years on ill conceived schemes, bad management, inefficiency, etc. Those who are resistant to change and making tough decisions (and prevent more enlightened colleagues from doing so), those who are more interested in their pension than delivering value to the tax payer, etc. Let’s not pretend – we can do better.

I want my business to be a success – I also want the Welsh economy to be a success. More people starting businesses like mine will help. However WAG needs to understand what it can do to help and what it can’t. Clearly it is not equipped to help in any direct way numerous high value business start ups. However, it can direct funds and support activities which improve the backdrop of our economic stage. So for example, I would suggest:
- Invest far more in supporting leading edge research (Science and Engineering) in Cardiff University – Wales’ only Russell Group University which, in the last Research rankings, fell from 7th to 20th! We need to see Cardiff back in the top ten
- Lobbying hard for more and faster links to London and Heathrow(eg High Speed Rail) – London is a global city with people and capital and Heathrow is a gateway to the world. We need to exploit both more
- Support and assist Cardiff. Cities will be key drivers in the 21st Century. We need a larger Cardiff City region

Cambria – whilst I accept some of your points I still believe we need to make a real break with the past and embrace a more hard edged and value driven philosophy in public service delivery. This will mean some things the government will have to do less of ( and perhaps stop all together – eg business support) whilst in other areas it can do more (eg transport?)

To save tax payers money governments (and esp. WAG) should focus on
- Educating its people
- Making us well when we are ill
- Facilitating and helping the movement of people, ideas and capital – within Wales but more importantly internationally and esp. to/from London

Ie – Education, Health and Transport…..

Unless there are good reason, the public sector should not lead or engage in other activities unless there is strong private sector involvement

Also, no matter what arguments one uses to defend it, 22 local authorities is crazy in a country of 3M people. Half that is more than sufficient; at the same time create strong city regions around Swansea and esp. Cardiff with pops 0.5~1M that can compete with the emerging city regions of Europe

Time for some tough love and recognise that the issues that affect Wales go back over many years and have not been addressed by any government of any colour in any meaningful way (Lets not pretend, the GVA/head of Wales is and continues to fall behind the UK average). Hard times mean hard decisions and a recognition that it will take a generation before we can turn it around – and only if we are tough now.

The NHS reorganisation of 10 years ago was a disaster and at least Edwina is trying to repair some of the damage done, even if senior managers do bizarrely appear to have permanent protection-with no role. The WLGA is keeping very quiet about how close several councils are to the financial and organisational abyss. They are just too small to carry out some of the more difficult and expensive roles of local government and the time is approaching (after the next Assembly elections) when several council roles will be grouped, probably along the new health body boundaries. I suspect that this will not lead to a cull of councils, but instead of council departments. The new Education Minister is currently considering this very option, as part of his plans to squeeze cash out of admin and into classrooms.

What I also find mystifying is why there is not more service/staff sharing between the NHS, councils and the civil service. In terms of best practice, so much could be learnt but again, egos are blocking progress here. The opportunities to retrain and re-deploy are enormous, as so many are on similar terms and conditions. This would allow a re-prioritisation of staffing without mass redundancy.

Things will change in the next three years because of the impending cuts, but it will take some strong ministers in Cardiff Bay to force councils to change. Without change, thousands will lose their jobs due to incompetent councils sacking staff to balance budgets. I wish that the WLGA would be a bit more honest about the critical situation some councils are in.

However, what is excessive, and what we should not countenance, particularly now, is waste. Before Christmas, it was announced that one fifth, or £1bn, of the NHS budget goes to waste. That is nothing short of an absolute national scandal, so why have we forgotten it so quickly? There should be protests outside the Senedd over matters like this.

CP – excellent summary of what is wrong and what should happen. I know it’s fairly broad brushstrokes, but it occurs to me that a bit of vision, as outlined in CP’s post, is just what the (ahem) doctor ordered. A paucity of imagination is, I think, the greatest political crime of these times.

I went to an excellent Bevan Foundation event last year about cuts, and how we should prepare for them. Speaker after speaker after speaker emphasised the importance of bottom-up rationalisation, of using front-line forces to find ways of joining together overlapping services and reducing costs. I couldn’t agree more, just as I couldn’t agree more that this economic crisis is not the fault of the public sector. Waste comes from bad management, but it seems that our focus is on public services that have had it “so good” for all these years. No, the only people that have had it so good are the bankers, and they continue on as if nothing has happened. Time they footed the bill for public services – properly.