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Mr. Wiggin: My understanding is that the more money local authorities receive from central Government, the less they have to levy on local people. I do not have a problem with that concept. However, I have a problem with the reality. We hear a lot about increased spending, but our council tax bills seem always to increase. That happens because a great deal of the money that the Government give to local authorities is ring-fenced. It is therefore difficult for councils to show local flexibility. I think that the hon. Gentleman would agree with that, as he often talks of devolution, but let us devolve all the way down to the local authorities, to where the spending happens. To answer the question, we should be spending at the most local level. I think that he would agree that that would be the most effective way to spend local money.
At the end of the last Conservative Government, Welsh GDP was 82.2 per cent. of the UK average. It should have been an ever-increasing percentage, but by last year it had shrunk to just 78.9 per cent. of the UK average. For all the Chancellor's assertions of
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economic growth in the UK, Wales is sliding further and further behind. Sadly, I see no proposals in this Gracious Speech that will do anything to remedy that situation.
The Government seem simply to be skimming over the fact that the prosperity gap between Wales and the rest of the UK continues to grow. Perhaps the avoidance of certain areas of policy is more significant than the legislation that the Government have chosen to include. Welsh new-build affordable housing has been cut by 78 per cent. since Labour took control of the Assembly, the back-log of urgent Welsh housing repairs has risen to £4.1 billion, and 98,000 Welsh homes are unfit for human habitation. At the same time, council tax is rising fast. Unfortunately, so is homelessness. Since 1997, the number of homeless Welsh people has risen by 112 per cent. from 4,297 to 9,147 yet there are no moves in the next Session's legislation to tackle the increasing Welsh housing crisis. The Chancellor promised in his pre-Budget report to provide support for first-time buyers, yet even with future social housing grants projected to 2008, affordable housing budgets in Wales will still be below their 1997 levels.
Similarly, the Government's proposals on education leave much to be desired, and many vital issues affecting Welsh students remain unchallenged. The continuing consequence of the Higher Education Bill is still extremely relevant for Welsh students. Top-up fees are postponed, but the Assembly's floundering on the issue means that students cannot plan for the debts that lie ahead. The Chancellor's pre-Budget report spoke of removing the remaining barriers for teenagers, so that every young person could stay in education. He should try telling that to the 2,000 students who marched through Cardiff last Thursday, campaigning against top-up fees.
Top-up fees are as big an issue as ever, but the Government have gone eerily quiet over the higher education spending deficits. The six Welsh pilot areas affected by the School Transport Bill will prove whether charges for school transport have a detrimental effect on children. Development on the issue must not mean an unfair deal for children living far from schools in rural areas.
Mr. Huw Edwards (Monmouth) (Lab): As the hon. Gentleman was a member of the Committee that considered the School Transport Bill, will he acknowledge that no charges need to be introduced if none of the pilot authorities chooses not to do so?
Mr. Wiggin: Does the hon. Gentleman know whether they will choose not to do so?
Mr. Edwards: I do not yet know where the pilot areas are.
Mr. Wiggin: I think that that solves that problem.
As I said, developments on this issue must not mean an unfair deal for children in rural areas. Unfortunately, until we see the results of the rural area pilot schemes, we will not be able to answer the hon. Gentleman's question definitely. As he also sat on the Committee that considered the Bill, I would hope that he would know, but obviously my intention is that
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authorities do not charge for transport. I hope that that answers his question.
Although I welcome the intentions of the education Bill to give schools greater freedom and to raise standards, one of the biggest issues of discipline has gone unnoticed again. Wales is increasingly missing its targets for tackling absenteeism, and truancy is increasing. Teachers complain that expelled children are being forced back into the same schools, yet the Queen's Speech and the expenditure proposals have provided nothing to tackle Wales's inability to provide for children whose behaviour has got out of control.
Health care may still be the biggest problem. There are no measures in the Queen's Speech to improve health care, despite its obviously dire state. The Secretary of State today praised the growth in the number of nurses in Wales, but, despite my intervention, he failed to mention the 500 unfilled nursing vacancies. MRSA rates are not improving: the number of cases has more than trebled since 1996. The out-of-hours general practitioners' service in Wales is in constant and escalating turmoil. It tells mothers to take sick children 200 miles, instructs a man suffering from chest pains to travel to the fifth-nearest hospital 40 miles away, and makes people wait days for a return call or never calls them back at all.
The Secretary of State often mentions the increase in Welsh health spending since 1997, yet surely it is more telling that the Welsh health service is still failing massively, even with money being thrown at it. Some 311,765 people now await hospital treatment, and out-patients' waits are at an all-time high of 240,167—a 5 per cent. increase on last year. Even when patients finally receive treatment, Wales lags further and further behind other developed countries in its access to medical technology. The use of less invasive treatment to tackle blockages in the heart arteries is half that in England, yet Wales has a higher rate of heart disease.
It is abundantly clear that health care in Wales needs to be tackled urgently, yet the Government's legislative programme contains no measures to improve the health service in Wales. The pre-Budget report almost entirely ignored the subject, except to mention the savings in drug procurement.
Of course, Wales will also be affected by many of the Government's plans for nationwide legislation. Sadly, those plans are aimed more towards crowding out any space for the Opposition on the security agenda, as the Secretary of State for Wales has freely admitted, than at making real improvements to the lives of people in Britain and Wales.
Mrs. Betty Williams (Conwy) (Lab): Before the hon. Gentleman leaves the subject of the NHS, would he make a tiny space in his remarks—maybe devote one sentence—to paying tribute to all those people who work in the NHS in Wales, instead of knocking them constantly?
Mr. Wiggin: If the hon. Lady is looking for little words she should look for any criticism in my speech of any of those health professionals. She will find that
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my criticism is for Labour delivery of health care in Wales. I criticise not doctors or nurses, but on the basis of the results and the increase in bureaucracy I am sure you would agree, Mr. Griffiths, that the Labour Administration in the Assembly has nothing to be proud of about health care. What the hon. Lady says about doctors and nurses is of course right, but why does her party's Government not trust those professionals more, instead of setting them targets? Let them get on with the job that they are trained to do, and I am sure that the results will be even better. I doubt whether they could be any worse.
Mrs. Williams: If the hon. Gentleman cares to examine figures other than those that he has selectively chosen this afternoon, he will find the answer to that question. The record in Wales, as well as in the rest of the UK, is pretty good.
Mr. Wiggin: It is not up to me to choose statistics but up to the voters to decide whether health care delivery in Wales is good enough. I have not yet heard anyone singing its praises, but I am sure that the hon. Lady has a very different view. I am happy to discuss the health service in Wales at any time, but I want to return to my speech, because we are of course discussing the effect on Wales of the Government's plans for nationwide legislation.
I was about to discuss something that will affect the hon. Lady's constituency—the unnecessary amalgamation of the historic Royal Regiment of Wales and Royal Welch Fusiliers. It is a real tragedy, and I cannot understand why the Government want to cut our armed forces when they are so deeply overstretched. It is real folly to lose two of the most historic regiments, which have unparalleled histories.
Albert Owen: The hon. Gentleman began his remarks by saying that he would not touch the Welsh block at all—it would remain the same over the period outlined by the Chancellor. He also now says that we should not cut defence. Where would the £35 billion of cuts be made?
Mr. Wiggin: The only person who has mentioned £35 billion of cuts is the Secretary of State, with his little helper echoing—
Albert Owen: The shadow Chancellor did.
Mr. Wiggin: Hon. Members should read the shadow Chancellor's speech. Perhaps I can help the hon. Gentleman; huge savings are available. Even the Government have recognised that. I think that it was in Gershon's recommendations that the figure was given of at least £20 billion being wasted by the Government at the moment. I do not think that it is beyond rhyme or reason, or the wit of my party, to find another £15 billion on top of that.
Lembit Öpik: How much?
Mr. Wiggin: I cannot confirm exactly how much we can cut, but I can confirm that we want to cut waste. I am sure that all parties share that goal. We also want to ensure that we provide better value for taxpayers' money.
I shall not go through our spending plans while we are discussing the Queen's Speech, but if people are
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concerned, I can confirm that at the top of our list of intentions is cutting taxes as much and as often as possible, but in a responsible way, and with a particular focus, I hope, on council tax.
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