MOVING NEWPORT’S POST OFFICE

The Post Office are planning to relocate its current branch from the Sovereign Arcade, Kingsway Centre, into a nearby vacant retail store in Upper Dock Street - thats not necessarily a problem, as its closer to the bus station and the parking.  However, a number of issues that should cause concern, the plan is for the relocated Post Office to be run by a retail partner, A S Stores Ltd, not the Post Office. 

The plan to extend opening hours to seven days a week is also a good idea. As is the suggestion that there should be seven serving positions, something that the Post Office planners have based on current and forecast future business levels; there will be four open plan positions and two more traditional screened positions which will also provide travel money services, as well as an open plan service point at the retail counter. Questions need to be asked about potential job loses amongst the highly professional well trained Post office staff who currently employed by Royal Mail. 

Additionally a respectable home needs to be found for the war memorial which is located in Newport Post Office and is dedicated to those of staff who worked for the organisation when it was the General Post Office (GPO), which is now Royal Mail. Any plans to relocate the memorial must ensure that members of the public may continue to pay their respects to those of post office staff who made the ultimate sacrifice. 

A public consultation is being held on the proposed move with a closing date of August 15, with the relocation taking place in October.

https://www.postofficeviews.co.uk/national-consultation-team/newport-np20-1eb-019632/user_uploads/newport-np20-1eb---proposal-letter.pdf

MAKING A PROSPEROUS WALES?

From the periphery, which largely depends on where you stand and how you look at the map, a change of economic focus in Wales is long overdue, perhaps ironically Brexit may well provide us a new opportunity. It is clear we cannot go on as we have, our country is literally littered with the tombstone like remnants of failed models of economic development, most of them having failed to deliver long-term economic benefits and more than a few long-term jobs to our people and our communities.

What is badly needed is the courage to step away from the over centralised state dependent model of economic development as applied by successive Westminster and Welsh governments. Governments which have consistently failed to deliver beyond the short-term for Wales. With the crutch of EU regional funding about to be kicked away, despite some weak and wobbly promises from Westminster to the contrary, we desperately need some fresh economic thinking.

We badly need to find other economic models that can deliver long-term jobs and lasting material benefits to our communities and to our country. We have been over dependent on Westminster or Cardiff Bay waving their magic wand to solve our economic problems, something that is entirely understandable considering the nature of our economic and political history, but simply compounds the error and won’t solve our economic problems or create sustainable jobs.

The days of bringing in significant amounts of ‘inward investment’ are probably over, Westminster has better things to spend its money on. Post BREXIT European funding or funding from is Westminster on anything like its previous scale is probably not going to happen. Lets be honest ‘The Union’ as it has been, even with devolution has failed to deliver for Wales, certainly as far as it is concerned the current Welsh Labour government is fresh out of ideas. 

We need indigenous home grown businesses (small, medium and large scale) which will put down roots and stick around when economic times are tough rather than pulling up sticks and bugging out when the grant money runs out and be more able to resist being hovered up by multi nationals. We need to develop small to medium sized enterprises or local co-operative industries that could provide medium to long-term sustainable job opportunities.

The co-operative model works well in both Ireland and in the Basque country, there is no reason why it should not work well here. The Basque cooperative model, as personified by Mondragon co-operative suggests what can be accomplished. If we are to grow local businesses and local jobs we are going to have to create a real Bank of Wales, perhaps using the German Sparkasse and Landesbanken model. For too long far too many small and medium sized businesses in our country have been denied credit by banks and this has prevented the growth of our private sector.

Our over centralised dividend driven pretty much rootless London based banking model that has been followed in the UK is incapable, indifferent or simply unwilling to deliver or support economic development in our country. in Germany, the Sparkasse and Landesbanken operate on a geographical basis, and have developed special expertise in the local industries so that they are better equipped to make investment decisions and should offer a real alternative.

Adam Price (Plaid Cymru AM/AC) has previously noted, “there are some great contemporary examples of Welsh co-operation at work.  Time-banking was a great idea developed by American Edgar Cahn, but it’s in the south Wales Valleys that it’s taken deepest root. Antur Aelhaiarn, the UK’s first community co-operative, is still going strong after thirty years.  Glas Cymru is such a unique example of utility-based mutualism that Harvard has made it a case study.   But these wonderful examples are so often beacons without bridges, lone successes that have never scaled into a full-flung Mondragon-like movement”.

Mondragon a collective of over 250 companies and organisations mostly based in the Basque Country has proven to be one of the more resilient economic success stories in recession-hit Spain. The Basque co-operative may well be the world's largest worker co-operative, it has certainly assisted the Basque economy to try and resist the worst ravages of the recession in Spain. The company was established in 1956, in the province of Gipuzkoa; with a business philosophy built around co-operation, participation, social responsibility and innovation. It began small, with a group of workers in a disused factory, literally using hand tools and sheet metal to make oil-fired heating and cooking stoves.

The Cooperative competes on international markets using democratic methods within its business organisation, helps to create jobs, and is committed to the human and professional development of its workers and pledges to development with its social environment. Some parts of the co-operative are wholly owned, others are run as joint venture operations. 

Over 11,000 people work abroad in 9 delegations and 128 production subsidiaries. The group’s innovative drive is channelled into 15 technology centres and into the cooperatives themselves, participating in research and technology development projects at the national and international level. The Mondragon group’s credit union (Caja Laboral) practically ended up effectively as one of Spain’s largest banks and has recovered from an initial 75% reduction in its profitability, unlike the other Spanish banks, which are still struggling.

Co-operative members as equal co-owners of their own workplaces enjoy job security and individual capital holdings, with an equal sharing of profits on a proportionate basis and an equal ‘one-member one vote’ say in the way their enterprises are run. Pay within the cooperatives is strictly egalitarian, with the highest rates payable other than in exceptional circumstances being refreshingly no more than six and a half times the lowest rate. The Basque country has Spain’s highest GDP per capita, its richer than even Catalonia and Wales is the poorest nation in the British Isles, and in northwestern Europe. 

We in Wales have much to learn from the example of Mondragon and its methods when it comes generating and retaining sustainable jobs, remaining poorer west Britons is not a serious option. There is no reason why the co-operative approach combined with a rich mix of small to medium sized enterprises cannot be used to bring in a community focused upward economic slow burn approach to economic development, something that will not just provide local jobs but real community beneficial sustainable developments which can transform our communities and fundamentally boost our country’s economic potential.

TIME FOR SOME FRESH THINKING

Small businesses play a significant role at the heart of our communities; they create wealth and sustainable employment opportunities for local people. Profits and investments made by them tend to stay within the communities where they are based. So rather than plunder small to medium sized entrepreneurs from Bristol, we need to grow and sustain our own small business creators in Newport and across Gwent and to make our towns and cities business SME friendly.

For too many years economic development in Wales has been focused on large scale development of what can be best described a single egg solutions, which promise much and deliver significantly less, the focus should be on developing small to medium size local businesses, which are significantly less likely to up sticks and leave for perceived greener pastures and fresh applications of development grants.

This focus on attracting large-scale single source enterprises, which promise much but deliver significantly less than anticipated, is short sighted in the extreme. The LG development near Newport, was a good example of an expensive disaster / fiasco [please take your pick] which promised the usual total of 6,000 jobs - accrued significant public funding - which was committed by the then Welsh Secretary, William Hague, yet never delivered anything like a third of what was promised.

A combination of what can best be described as fantasy island economic assessments, a fatally flawed business case and a forthcoming Westminster election led to one of the spectacularly duller decisions of recent years being made, something that ended up costing us millions of pounds worth of public money. The WDA has in truth not really consistently delivered anything like long-term economic stability and much needed long-term job opportunities to our communities that it should have done.

European funding opportunities (soon to be a thing of the past) have been seriously wasted, where are the significant tangible assets, beyond some visibly badged infrastructure projects that you can literally put your hand on like improved communications (rail, road, broadband infrastructure, etc) that can bring long term benefits to our communities.

Amongst the questions that should have been asked is how much money has been scammed (and scammed may be the key word) into dubious training programmes and questionable educations programmes that fail to deliver the necessary skills that workers and potential workers need to make a decent living in the modern economy?

Back in the day the Plaid driven One Wales Government made significant efforts and attempts to think and act differently when it came to economic development and support for small to medium sized enterprises. This is the only real thing that will put wealth into our communities, and develop and sustain longer-term employment possibilities.

Attracting branch factory operations of a relative short-term duration might get some headlines but it does not help to sustain and develop our economy. We really do need to think differently and focus economic development priorities on smaller local businesses who will be rooted in our communities and offer more flexible employment opportunities.

Friars Walk in Newport is a welcome exception to the last thirty five years, when across the south east, we have seen the commercial hearts of many of our communities (including Newport) seriously damaged (if not ripped out) as a result of a combination of aggressive policies pursued by the larger retail chains and exceptionally poor decision-making on the part of local government and central government indifference.

When combined with the rapid growth of unsustainable, ill-thought out and more than questionable out of town and edge of town retail developments which leave next to no place for the smaller local businesses and retailers and deprive consumers of real choice. When you factor in parking charges, business rates and the effect of the closure of high street banks and post offices in many of our communities and you begin to see why many of our smaller businesses and local shopping centres are up against it.

Local small businesses as well as trading with us the consumers also trade with each other - so the community gets twice the benefit. Money spent by and in local businesses spends on average three times longer in the local economy than that spent with chain stores which is instantly lost to the local economy which in times of recession our communities can ill afford.

Our National Assembly needs to have the power to vary business taxes in order to help boost our businesses, as well as encourage investment in skills and the tools of their businesses and their workers. If we are going to make Wales a nation of aspiring entrepreneurs and to encourage and enable them, our communities and our economy to flourish we need to encourage the development of community owned social enterprises.

It should be pretty clear to most people that before and after the banking crash - the present financial market and its institutions have failed over recent years to supply sufficient venture capital for the SME sector in Wales. One step forward would a venture capital fund for Wales, which should be established by, but independent of the Welsh Assembly Government

Such an independent venture capital fund could raise capital and deliver investment through a co-investment model, with approved private sector partners to our SME sector, where such investment would make a real difference. More of the same old twaddle from Whitehall and Cathay’s just simply won't do at all, vastly expensive one egg, one basket schemes to generate the seemingly standard 6,000 jobs, just won't do.

What we need is fresh thinking and action from the new government - more than just talk, we need some concrete steps to encourage growth, boost manufacturing industry, support our small to medium sized enterprises and an end to the business rates and that's just to start with.  Otherwise it will just be a case of same old, same old with ill thought out public sector cuts which will do nothing to boost our communities, our economy and that’s one thing we cannot afford.

BACKING THE NCSA

Jobs in Cyber-Security

There is huge untapped potential amongst the people and communities of Gwent, something that has remained largely untapped by successive Welsh Labour governments and largely ignored by more distant Westminster governments.

There are real opportunities for growth and the re-industrialisation of our region, but the Welsh Labour Government continues to be content to remain sitting on its hands, unwilling to properly invest in our future.

Most of us would prefer not to see Newport and the Gwent Valleys become little more than a commuter belt for Bristol and Cardiff. Our communities have an identity and a history of their own that it would be tragic to lose and remain too vibrant to be simply written off.

At present Welsh Government spending on research and development remains far below the European average. We need to be aiming to at least match the EU average level of investment if we are to kick-start a realistic return of industry, manufacturing jobs and research and design.

Plaid Cymru’s Steffan Lewis has rightly called for the establishment of an advanced institute of manufacturing to be set up in the Valleys to bring desperately needed funding to the region. This, if it is done right, could deliver better quality apprenticeships.

The percentage of young people in Wales doing apprenticeships in manufacturing fell from 6% in 2006/7 to just 2% in 2014/15. The percentage of apprentices in engineering fell to 8% of all apprenticeships. This grim statistic should raise the question as to whether we are seriously equipping our young people with the skills they need to thrive in a increasingly competitive world.

To be fair there have been some very positive developments in Newport which could have implications right across our region and beyond. The National Cyber-Security Academy, based in the University of South Wales, for example, is providing students in Newport with highly valued, cutting edge skills.

The Welsh Government has so far failed to seize the chance to build on that legacy by designating Newport as the cyber-security capital of Wales. Where we have strengths, we should be building on them and growing our expertise.

The University of South Wales’s innovative project aims to help address a shortage of cyber security skills and develop the next generation of cyber security experts. The pilot National Cyber Security Academy (NCSA), the first of its kind in Wales and a major UK initiative, has been set up at USW’s Newport City Campus.

The project also involves Welsh digital innovation company Innovation Point and major industry players – including Airbus, General Dynamics UK, Alert Logic, Information Assurance, QinetiQ, Silcox Information Security, Westgate Cyber, Wolfberry and the South Wales Cyber Security Cluster – the NCSA will work to close an expected skills gap in the cyber security sector. <

By 2019 it is forecast that an additional 4.5 million personnel will be needed worldwide. The NCSA builds on plans for a £60m Newport Knowledge Quarter, which would see USW work in partnership with Coleg Gwent to build a new learning campus in the city’s riverbank area.

With some funding from the Welsh Government, the £500,000 pilot initiative involves a cohort of current USW Computer Forensics and Computer Security undergraduates. They will work on real-world projects set by NCSA partners, while also ‘flight testing’ the course to ensure it meets the latest cyber security challenges.

The project will develop as industry partners identify new challenges in the cyber security environment. If the pilot is successful, the University will quickly build up the student numbers through the delivery of a full-time dedicated degree programme in Applied Cyber Security.

I don’t think that it is unreasonable for want everyone in Gwent to have access to the well-paid, skilled, high quality jobs, close to home that they want. If our region is to meet the challenges of the years ahead, we need to be investing now to generate economic development and to safeguard our future.

Far too many of our people living across our region feel, that there aren’t enough jobs nearby and that the jobs that are available are often temporary or on insecure, zero hours contracts. We need to move beyond the vague sound bites of the Welsh Labour Government when it comes to economic development; we need proper planning and some action rather than words.

A VIEW FROM THE EDGE

From the perspective of the periphery, something that largely depends on where you stand and how you look at the map, a change of economic focus is long overdue, perhaps ironically Brexit may provide a new opportunity. Our country is littered with the tombstone like remnants of failed models of economic development, most of them having failed to deliver long-term economic benefits and more than a few long-term jobs to our people and our communities.

What is badly needed is the courage to step away from the centralised state dependent model of economic development as applied by successive Westminster and Welsh governments who have consistently failed to deliver beyond the short-term for Wales. With the crutch of EU regional funding about to be kicked away, despite some weak and wobbly promises from Westminster to the contrary, we desperately need some fresh economic thinking.

We need to find other economic models that can deliver long-term jobs and lasting material benefits to our communities and to our country. Our over-dependence on Westminster or Cardiff Bay waving their magic wand to solve our economic problems is understandable considering the nature of our economic and political history, but it is simply compounds the error and won’t solve our economic problems or create sustainable jobs.

The days of bringing in significant amounts of ‘inward investment’ are probably over, Westminster has better things to spend its money on. Westminster and ‘The Union’ has largely failed to deliver for Wales, certainly as far as it is concerned the current Welsh Labour government is fresh out of ideas. 

We need indigenous home grown businesses which will put down roots and stick around when economic times are tough rather than pulling up sticks and bugging out when the grant money runs out. We need to develop small to medium sized enterprises or local co-operative industries that could provide medium to long-term sustainable job opportunities.

The co-operative model which works well in both Ireland and in the Basque country, there is no reason why it should not work well here. The Basque cooperative model, as personified by Mondragon co-operative suggests what can be accomplished. If we are to grow local businesses and local jobs we are going to have to create a real Bank of Wales, perhaps using the German Sparkasse and Landesbanken model. For too long far too many small and medium sized businesses in our country have been denied credit by banks and this has prevented the growth of our private sector.

The over centralised dividend driven pretty much rootless London based banking model that has been followed in the UK is incapable, indifferent or simply unwilling to deliver or support economic development in our country. The German Sparkasse and Landesbanken operate on a geographical basis, and have developed special expertise in the local industries so that they are better equipped to make investment decisions and should offer a real alternative.

Adam Price (AM/AC) has previously noted, “there are some great contemporary examples of Welsh co-operation at work.  Time-banking was a great idea developed by American Edgar Cahn, but it’s in the south Wales Valleys that it’s taken deepest root. Antur Aelhaiarn, the UK’s first community co-operative, is still going strong after thirty years.  Glas Cymru is such a unique example of utility-based mutualism that Harvard has made it a case study.   But these wonderful examples are so often beacons without bridges, lone successes that have never scaled into a full-flung Mondragon-like movement”.

Mondragon is a collective of around 261 companies and organisations based in the Basque Country has proved to be one of the more resilient economic success stories in recession-hit Spain. The Basque co-operative may well be the world's largest worker co-operative, it has certainly assisted the Basque economy to try and resist the worst ravages of the recession in Spain. The company was established in 1956, in the province of Gipuzkoa; with a business philosophy built around co-operation, participation, social responsibility and innovation. It began small, with a group of workers in a disused factory, literally using hand tools and sheet metal to make oil-fired heating and cooking stoves.

The Cooperative competes on international markets using democratic methods within its business organisation, helps to create jobs, and is committed to the human and professional development of its workers and pledges to development with its social environment. Some parts of the co-operative are wholly owned, others are run as joint venture operations. 

Over 11,000 people work abroad in 9 delegations and 128 production subsidiaries. The group’s innovative drive is channelled into 15 technology centres and into the cooperatives themselves, participating in research and technology development projects at the national and international level. The Mondragon group’s credit union (Caja Laboral) practically became one of Spain’s largest banks and recovered from an initial 75% reduction in its profitability, unlike the other Spanish banks, which are still struggling.

Co-operative members as equal co-owners of their own workplaces enjoy job security and individual capital holdings, with an equal sharing of profits on a proportionate basis and an equal ‘one-member one vote’ say in the way their enterprises are run. Pay within the cooperatives is strictly egalitarian, withthe highest rates payable other than in exceptional circumstances being refreshingly no more than six and a half times the lowest rate. 

We in Wales can learn much from the example Mondragon and its methods when it comes generating and retaining sustainable jobs. There is no reason why the co-operative approach combined with a rich mix of small to medium sized enterprises cannot be used to bring in a community focused upward economic slow burn approach to economic development, something that will not just provide local jobs but real community beneficial sustainable developments which can transform our communities and fundamentally boost our country’s economic potential.