A Producer-Led Blueprint for Welsh Economic Renewal

Wales has spent too long governed by bureaucracy, short-term-ism, and political management instead of long-term economic strategy. This blueprint sets out a different approach: smaller government, stronger enterprise, modern infrastructure, democratic accountability, and producer-led growth.

Our economic principles are built on five core foundations:

1. Small government
2. Producer-led decision-making
3. Institutional neutrality
4. Free-market growth
5. Democratic accountability

A New Welsh Development Authority (WDA) Led By Producers, Not Bureaucrats

We will establish a reformed, arm’s-length Welsh Development Authority focused entirely on economic growth and deregulation. The WDA board will consist primarily of experienced wealth creators and sector leaders, including:

• Farmers
• Engineers
• Manufacturers
• Hoteliers and hospitality operators
• Aviation and aerospace specialists
• Steel and energy executives
• Senior clinicians
• Small and medium-sized business owners

Its purpose will not be to distribute corporate subsidies or attempt to “pick winners”. Its mandate will be straightforward:

• Identify barriers to growth
• Reduce unnecessary regulation
• Accelerate investment
• Improve competitiveness
• Support enterprise across all regions of Wales

Specialist advisers may support the WDA where necessary, but decision-making authority will remain with the producer-led board.

The WDA will also lead the international promotion of Wales for tourism, trade, and inward investment.

Established global place brands such as the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia will continue to be used internationally as recognised economic and tourism assets.

Appointments to the WDA will be made on demonstrated competence, professional achievement, and experience. Selection processes will be transparent, accountable, and merit-based.

Energy Security and Industrial Competitiveness

Economic growth depends upon affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Wales should pursue a balanced energy strategy centred on long-term reliability, industrial competitiveness, energy resilience, and strategic national resources.

• Gas and nuclear as the core of reliable baseload generation, rejecting inefficient wind and solar mandates.
• We will not blight our countryside or our coastline with solar panels or wind turbines. People come to Wales for the rolling landscape and stunning coastline.
• Development of domestic energy capacity, including responsible extraction of coal, gas, and fracking under strict environmental standards.
• Expansion of tidal energy projects where economically viable.
• Review of the 2018 moratorium on domestic extraction industries.
• Freeport-style incentives to attract high-skill industrial investment and advanced manufacturing.

Farming, Food Production, and Rural Wales

Agriculture and rural industries are foundational parts of the Welsh economy and national identity. Policy should support farmers as producers, land managers, and food suppliers rather than burdening them with excessive bureaucracy.

• Greater flexibility for localised bovine TB management within veterinary and environmental law
• Support for voluntary environmental stewardship schemes
• Protection of private property rights
• Reduction of unnecessary regulatory burdens on farming and food production

Rural Wales should be treated as an economic asset to be strengthened, not managed into decline.

Infrastructure That Supports Growth

Economic expansion requires efficient transport, logistics, and connectivity.

• Delivering the Newport Bypass to reduce congestion and improve freight movement.
• Upgrading the M4 corridor to three lanes from Carmarthen to Bristol to create a modern, high-capacity east-west corridor.
• Improving north-south transport links across Wales.
• Prioritising road, rail, and digital infrastructure that supports business growth and labour mobility.
• Road safety measures should remain targeted around schools, hospitals, and high-risk areas while ensuring transport policy remains proportionate and evidence-led.

Strengthening Tourism and Hospitality

Tourism and hospitality are major employers and revenue generators across Wales.

• Opposition to additional tourism levies or visitor taxes.
• Lower barriers and costs for hospitality businesses.
• Competitive conditions for hotels, pubs, restaurants, and tourism operators.
• International promotion of Wales as a premium visitor destination.

Visitors from across the UK and abroad should be welcomed as customers, investors, and contributors to local economies.

Revitalising Strategic Welsh Industries, Including Healthcare

Wales already possesses major strengths in aviation and aerospace, steel and metals, compound semiconductors, life sciences and medtech, advanced manufacturing, digital industries, and creative industries.

The priority should be to expand these sectors through investment, competitiveness, skills, and regulatory efficiency. Healthcare reform should focus on productivity, frontline delivery, and patient outcomes.

• Reducing the number of Welsh health boards from seven to four for greater efficiency and administrative correspondence with the four policing areas (same streamlining will apply to Fire and Ambulance services).
• Expanding integrated frontline care pathways to reduce delays and repeat referrals (one visit, one fix model).
• No NHS worker will be allowed to take paid union rep roles while on the payroll: you are either paid to be a union rep or you do your actual job. No union offices on NHS estates.
• GPs will return to rota systems covering nights and out-of-hours care for their areas, exactly as they used to.
• The remaining CEOs will receive no salary increase above their current level. Agency and locum posts will be cut by 50%.
• Expanding opportunities for Welsh-trained medical professionals to remain and work in Wales under a merit-first system.

The NHS should prioritise patient access, workforce stability, accountability, and faster treatment delivery.

Education, Parental Rights, and Transparency

Education in Wales should prioritise literacy, numeracy, scientific understanding, critical thinking, discipline, and preparation for adult life. Parents are the primary caregivers in a child’s upbringing and must have meaningful visibility over what is taught in schools.

• All schools should publish a full term-by-term curriculum overview online in advance, including lesson topics, external organisations involved, guest speakers, relationships and sex education content, workshops, assemblies, and supplementary materials.
• Parents must retain clear opt-out rights from non-core material where lawful and appropriate.
• Welsh education policy should focus on raising literacy and numeracy standards, expanding vocational and technical education, supporting discipline, strengthening apprenticeships and industry links, and improving pathways into engineering, healthcare, manufacturing, science, and skilled trades.

Getting Wales Back to Work

A prosperous Wales cannot be built on mass economic inactivity, dependency, and wasted human potential. We will launch a national “Getting Wales Back to Work” programme focused on restoring participation, skills, and opportunity.

• Massively expand apprenticeships, engineering and technical colleges, construction and manufacturing training, and employer-led vocational schemes.
• Support young people capable of work into employment, apprenticeships, vocational education, community projects, and civic participation.
• Treat mental health seriously while recognising work, purpose, physical activity, and contribution improve wellbeing.
• Ensure the welfare system protects those genuinely unable to work while helping others return to employment or training.
• Make work always pay more than inactivity.

Economic success depends upon social stability, equal treatment under the law, and strong civic institutions.

Welsh Language Policy: Encouragement Without Compulsion

Despite hundreds of millions of pounds spent every year on Welsh-language initiatives, the proportion of the population who only speak Welsh is marginal at best. It is time this unicorn stopped flying.

No job in Wales — public, private, or third sector — should be dependent on the ability to speak Welsh.

We want the brightest and the best, not a closed circle of BBC/S4C flunkies.

Welsh language and culture are welcome and will continue to be supported voluntarily. But they must never again be used as a barrier to talent, opportunity, or economic growth.

Democratic Consent and Manifesto Accountability

Any significant policy proposal not explicitly set out in a governing party’s published manifesto should require direct public approval before implementation.

This principle would apply particularly to major constitutional changes, significant tax increases, large-scale restrictions on personal freedoms, fundamental changes to energy, land, or property rights, and major demographic or immigration policy changes.

A Little Miracle In The West

Wales has the talent, geography, industrial capability, and entrepreneurial potential to become one of the most competitive regions in Europe.

A modern Welsh economy should be built on enterprise, infrastructure, energy security, skills, innovation, merit, and democratic accountability.

The objective is not managed decline or permanent dependency, but long-term national confidence, productivity, and economic growth.

Wales can succeed through openness, capability, investment, and freedom.