The Valleys of South Wales have always been an affront to the Tories

The Valleys of South Wales have always been an affront to the Tories. From the Living Wage strike and the riots that followed in 1910, to the proud resistance of 1984-85, and through a near century of socialism in between, the Valleys have been a living rejection of Tory dogma, a defiant redoubt of working class solidarity and Labour’s collectivist politics. And from time to time, they’ve made us suffer for it, as we are today.

Since the Banker’s crash of 2008, it has been working class communities like ours that have born the heaviest burden and paid the highest price. Anecdotally, this impact has long been evident, but empirically now its truth is undeniable. Come to my constituency, to the Ilan Estate or Cae Fadre, or go to neighbouring wards in in Maerdy, Penywaun or on the Gurnos and see the price that people are paying for fuelling British industry in the last century, and for providing Cameron’s Welfare ‘savings’ in this.

A new report from Sheffield Hallam University, has found that in these communities the Tory government’s social security reforms have left the average working age adult up to £1,000 per year worse off.  At the same time the Tories have simply failed to create an economy that boosts jobs or tackle the cost of living crisis, which has left Welsh working people £1,700 worse off on average – the highest loss anywhere in Britain.

Maerdy, Penywaun or Gurnos are some of the communities hardest hit by these failures, however the report shows that the area as a whole is suffering.  In fact, across the region the average loss of income per adult of working age would be £650, amongst the highest in the whole of the UK.  You’ll find few people here who will treat George Osborne’s claim that we are all in it together with anything other than the scorn it deserves.

The magnitude of these losses in areas like the South Wales Valleys is staggering and potentially devastating to both the people directly affected and the wider community.

I’m immensely proud to represent the Valleys constituency that I was brought up in.  It is a part of the world that is rich in so many ways.  However, like many areas that were forged around heavy industry, the economy has suffered hugely since deindustrialisation under Thatcher.  The average Valleys household has some of the lowest income levels in the UK, averaging around £13,600, in comparison to £21,446 in London, leaving precious little left over once housing costs and the bills have been paid. The valiant efforts of the Welsh Labour Government through measures like Jobs Growth Wales, or protection of council budgets has mitigated the effects of Tory cuts, but Cameron’s knife has dug deep.

The truth is that the Tories’ tough language in Westminster, has translated into a reality of choosing between heating and eating for many families in places like the South Wales Valleys.  Little wonder food banks have become an “essential lifeline” for thousands of individuals in our area since 2010.

Yet one of the starkest findings from the Sheffield Hallam report, was the collective impact that the social security cuts have had on the wider economy of the area, draining £430m out of the South Wales Valleys economy, each year.

This reduced spending power, even for people on the most meagre of incomes, has a big knock-on effect for shops and services in the local area.  Once families start cutting back on shopping or are forced to use food banks, that’s bad news for the corner shop.  People have less money to spend on entertainment or leisure facilities, so that’s a problem for local cafes or swimming pools.  Even transport services suffer, as people are unable to afford bus or train fare. These are the micro impacts that add up to the Tories’ macro-economic failure of declining tax receipts and diminished aggregate demand.

The report also found that when these examples are multiplied, across the regional economy, the South Wales Valleys stands to lose 3,000 jobs.  In an area that already has high levels of economic inactivity, this creates the disastrous prospect of long term unemployment for huge numbers of people and will perversely force even greater numbers to rely on social security.  Little wonder the Tories are set to overspend their own planed social security budget by £13 billion.

That is why I have invited the report’s author Prof Steve Fothergill and the Industrial Communities Alliance (Wales), who commissioned the work, to launch their ‘The Impact of Welfare Reform on the Valleys’ report in the House of Commons on Tuesday 4 November.

It’s vital that we have a full understanding of the wider impacts these social security reform are likely to have on working class communities across the UK.  So I want as many people as possible to come to the event and be part of the discussion about how we can best tackle the fallout in the Valleys, as well as similar areas across the UK.

Currently the whole of the country is bearing the cost of the Tories’ botched social security reforms and their failure to build a fair recovery that creates decent jobs.  The truth is the only way to tackle the issue and meaningfully reduce the social security bill, is to rebalance our economy across Britain, starting with Labour’s plan to get more people into work, create secure employment and tackling the scourge of low pay.

In the meantime, we need to prepare for the ever worsening fallout from this Tory government’s failures, which are not only sucking money out of communities that have the least, but draining hope and aspiration as well.

The event is open to all attendees and will be held in House of Commons, Committee Room 13 at 17:30 on Tuesday 4 November.