Senedd is told rural Wales is in more trouble than at any point in living memory

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00:00 is a picture of decline. Banks closing, schools, post offices, pubs and so on all closing. Young

00:08 people leaving rural Wales to seek work, to seek affordable housing or a better life or better

00:16 leisure facilities in rural areas in general terms. This is the picture that is familiar

00:25 to everyone. Levels of income per head are lower than the average in Wales. The levels of GVA

00:33 and productivity are also lower. Taken together, the levels of deprivation in rural areas

00:41 are lower than in urban areas. Who would think that Ceredigion, which has the house prices that

00:50 are amongst the highest in Wales, has 30 per cent of children living in poverty, the second highest

00:57 rate in the whole of Wales? What this shows is that the external view of relative wealth can hide

01:07 poverty under the surface. That, truth be told, is the situation in rural Wales as a whole.

01:16 Significant poverty is hiding in the shadows and invisible.

01:22 To add to this, the cost-of-living crisis has had a damaging impact on our rural communities.

01:30 The Bevan Foundation has talked about the triple pressures on our rural areas, namely high costs,

01:38 low incomes and poor access to public services through a lack of support by Governments of

01:47 different stripes. As Professor Kelvin Jones from the Economics Department at Cardiff University

01:54 has saidó [Clearing of the air]

01:55 Wales is in trouble, probably more trouble than in living memory, and from forces and trends that

02:05 are unlikely to disappear any time soon. Economic dysfunction is old hat here, of course. The social

02:15 problems consequent on poor wages, low value added and a lack of economic opportunity and market

02:25 income are many and longwithstanding. These include poverty, the hollowing out of towns,

02:33 poor service provision for rural areas and the out-migration of the young.

02:37 [Interruption.]

02:37 So, that's the pattern that all of us who live in these areas are familiar with.

02:43 The seriousness of the situationóevery time I've called on the Welsh Government in this Chamber to

02:52 develop a strategy tailored specifically to dealing with rural povertyóand I have done that several

03:01 times, as some of you will know, the Government has said no, stating that poverty is poverty

03:10 wherever one might live. Well, I disagree. Research shows that urban poverty and rural poverty are

03:20 different, and they should be treated differently. So, as a result of a lack of response from the

03:28 Government, I decided to take the reins and commission research and to develop a strategy

03:35 myself by taking advice from experts and drawing on the most recent research in relevant areas.

03:42 So, on the basis of this, I have developed recommendations in a number of policy areas,

03:49 from transport, childcare, housing, energy, digital services and the rural economy. I've

03:55 come to the conclusion that this Government and policy-makers more widely in all parts of Wales

04:02 should give more consideration to rural Wales in everything that they do, in all of the strategies,

04:09 all of the policies and all of the work programmes that they develop and implement.

04:14 I think what has become abundantly clear in my research is the fact that current policy-making

04:21 processes do not give appropriate recognition to the different and specific needs of our

04:28 rural communities. Now, in Northern Ireland, for example, public bodies have a statutory duty