“The benefits to be had, whether from coal and steel, or from wind and waves, have been siphoned off by a tiny few.”
Beth Winter MP
By Beth Winter MP
The scars on Britain’s former industrial heartlands are reminders of this country’s record of the extraction and exploitation of natural wealth – and its concentration and capture for the benefit of a distant elite.
One such example is Wales, or Cymru, where it’s plentiful natural resources have generated vast wealth.
Their exploitation has been extracted to enrich a tiny minority. The benefits to be had, whether from coal and steel, or from wind and waves, have been siphoned off by a tiny few, while the many who help generate it, suffer poverty, hardship and inequality.
Our South Wales Valleys were built on coal. In 1913, just under one third of global coal exports came from the South Wales coalfield.
The legacy of that for central London is abundance – extreme wealth and extravagant buildings.
But too often in Cymru’s history, once that wealth has been extracted, the work involved has been cast aside. 40 years ago, a Conservative Government took on the coal mining industry, first closing unprofitable pits before shutting the remainder, decimating local communities in South Wales in the process.
The legacy for the South Wales Valleys is over 2000 coal tips scattered across our hillsides, coupled with some of the highest levels of poverty and deprivation in the UK.
In recent weeks, we have heard that almost 3,000 jobs will be axed at the remaining steelworks in a decision that is drawn from the same Conservative playbook. The privatised owners making decisions on a global level about which works they deem sufficiently profitable. In this case, it is Port Talbot.
Yet it is still the case that Cymru’s natural resources generate significant revenue. The problem is that revenue continues to be extracted from Wales, and from Cymru’s future generations.
Not only this but the extraction of wealth is made worse by the underfunding Wales receives in grants from Westminster. Money is taken with one hand but is not returned with the other.
This has serious implications for a country with high levels of unemployment and economic inactivity. A recent assessment of Westminster’s approach to the Welsh economy in the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales found that budget restrictions applied by HM Treasury undermine the Welsh Government’s ability to manage its budget and plan for the long term.
That is why there is increasing discussion of how a left vision for Cymru’s future can identify sources of revenue to boost Welsh Government’s financial firepower. At the centre of that is a new campaign, launched to build a Welsh Sovereign Wealth Fund funded by devolving the revenues of the Crown Estate for Wales.
And although the heavy industries that defined our valleys – including my own, Cynon Valley – have retreated, the extraction continues in different guises.
In Cynon Valley, the wind farms atop our hills are owned by the Swedish state. Meanwhile the sandstone that makes up the steep valley sides is extracted, the profits extracted by a German multinational.
Extracted like the young people who leave our areas to ‘get on in life’ and instead strengthen other communities.
That is the story of Wales’s past, and present. It doesn’t have to be the story of Cymru’s future.
With abundant wind, rain, tidal power, Cymru can power the future as it has done in the past. But imagine what we could do, if the people of Wales had the power of owning our own natural resources. Much of that falls to the Crown Estate.
The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings formally belonging to the monarchy but the revenues it generates fund the Treasury, and UK Government. In Scotland, management of the assets – and the revenue – now falls to Scottish Government after a deal in 2016 but the same has not been secured for Welsh Government.
The Crown Estate has a portfolio worth £16bn which includes £853m of assets in Cymru. In Cymru that includes 50,000 acres of land, it includes the seabed up to 12 miles off land which could be a source of renewable energy, it includes key ports such as Milford Haven where much of the UK’s gas is delivered. Yet decisions about how that money is distributed and used are not made in Cymru, on behalf of the people of Cymru. Extraction and exploitation of Cymru’s natural resources persist.
This must stop. The people living and working in Cymru are best placed to know what is needed to benefit our communities. It is about democracy, devolution, prosperity and sustainability.
We have the potential to create a green economy, securing a sustainable future and where the wealth we generate is retained and invested in Cymru. And there is support for this already:
It is supported by both Labour and Plaid Cymru in Wales with the Cooperation Agreement reached after the last Senedd elections.
A Sovereign Wealth Fund could be structured around the goals of the Well Being of Future Generations Act with the funds raised invested to tackle poverty and inequality in Cymru as well as investing to build green infrastructure and secure a sustainable country for future generations.
To devolve the Crown Estate and establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund a campaign is now taking off which I am pleased to be supporting.
Together we can achieve the Crown Estate’s aim of creating lasting and shared prosperity for the nation. A fairer, more equal and greener Cymru that puts people before profit, for the benefit of everyone.
The way to do it, is to ensure that Cymru’s tremendous natural wealth is owned, managed and controlled by us, the people of Cymru.
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Beth Winter is the MP for Cynon Valley and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook, you can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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