Business brains’ radical schemes for fixingWales
Leading figures from Wales’ business community came up with some radical ideas for fixing the Welsh economy at a seminar in London.
The solutions ranged from replacing GPs with computers to writing off student debt and abolishing the country’s grant culture.
The meeting was organised by the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) and held in the offices of law firm Bristows.
Gerry Holtham, Hodge professor of regional economy at Cardiff Metropolitan University, said the Welsh Government had been “captured by the producer interest”.
He said: “Health is 50% of the Welsh budget and, given the demographic trends and the way things are going, if you remain with producer capture it’s going to be 60% and you won’t be able to do anything.
“I think we’ve got to say, ‘Look, we don’t need GPs. GPs are obsolete’. A computer program, it’s been proven, will diagnose 98% of ailments better than a GP because a) it’s up to date and b) it doesn’t forget anything. So I would employ nurses in health centres, with a computer program and a phone line to a specialist.”
IWA trustee Dr Eurfyl ap Gwilym addressed the problem of the 40% of Welsh students who leave the country after graduating.
She said: “The university students, if they graduate and if they worked in Wales for five years, we’d write off any debts they’ve incurred, in a structured way.
“Very often graduates, by the time they get to about 25, are starting to settle down and think, ‘This place isn’t too bad after all, it’s a good place to bring up families and so on, so I’ll stay here’.”
Dr ap Gwilym argued this would be a clear incentive for young people to plan their future in Wales after university.
Margaret Llewellyn, non-executive director of Cardiff Airport and chair of the Network Rail supervisory board in Wales, said the current system of offering grants to businesses was “utterly” wrong.
She said: “Where we give grant upon grant for one initiative or one idea after another, we really don’t get anything of top quality because we don’t understand what that is. It doesn’t work.
“I feel that whatever we’ve got should be loans. Even if people default after one or two years, at least the person’s learnt the discipline of paying the loan back, and secondly, the money that’s come back in can be used for somebody else to start their business.”
Lynne Miles, associate director at Arup and deputy director for the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, said the key to improving regional economies was to not “spread the jam too thin”.
She said national governments tend to apply public policy in a “spatially blind” manner, not recognising that big cities are essential for a thriving economy.
Ms Miles added: “You really want to invest in your big cities and do what you can to grow and densify those cities.
“In terms of infrastructure and housing and all of those physical, tangible things, I’m strongly inclined not to spread the jam and to resist pressure to try and spread that to rural areas to appear to be treating everyone equally. I don’t think that does anyone any favours in the long run.”
She added that more is known about how to successfully develop people compared to places – so skills, education and training are the areas where governments should seek equal access.
Rachel Lomax, chair of the event and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, said: “Wales has kept pace. There’s a levels problem, but things are not slipping back…
“It’s very sad that the opportunities of devolution haven’t been seized more decisively, but it’s still only 20 years old… that’s not long in the great sweep of things.”