Lib Dems Call for an End to The Neglect of Former Mining Communities in Wales

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called for the UK Labour Government to draw up plans for real economic investment in former mining communities across Wales.

The Liberal Democrats were critical of both the Conservatives and Labour’s record in former mining communities and have called for significantly more economic investment to boost growth across former mining communities in South Wales. 

Across Wales, nearly 800,000 people – about a third of the population – still live in former coal mining towns. In the South Wales Coalfields, there are just 46 jobs for every 100 working-age people. 

The South Wales Valleys have significantly higher levels of poverty, unemployment and sickness than other parts of Wales and the UK. 

The Welsh Liberal Democrat’s Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick accused the new Labour Government of abandoning any idea of ‘levelling up’ and chasing a London-dominated, banker-focused form of growth that will do nothing to address regional inequality in the UK. 

The criticism follows a raft of new infrastructure projects in the South East of England being announced by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week, with not a single project being located in Wales. 

David Chadwick highlighted the proposed the Global Centre of Rail Excellence, a railway infrastructure and technology testing facility, located in a former coal in Onllwyn, Wales as a primary example of a project that could transform former mining communities if it gets the funding needed to get off the ground. 

The Liberal Democrat MP warned that the rise in populist politics has been a direct response to former industrial communities being ignored by political leaders for too long and an overwhelming feeling within those communities of being left behind. 

The Party also criticised the slow movement and a lack of funding to make coal tips safe as well as the failure to address the pensions of miners on the BCSSS scheme, of which 4,000 live in Wales. 

Commenting Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick said:

“People in the South Wales Valleys are desperate to be heard. The legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s policies: the closure of our primary industry and the failure to replace it with anything else, has left lasting scars. It is not hard to see why people in South Wales wonder whether their governments are listening to them.   

“Labour looks set on following the Conservatives' failed economic plan of focusing on the Southeast of England and bankers, rather than actually addressing regional inequality and developing our former industrial communities. 

“The Liberal Democrats stand for change; we want to see things in former mining communities really improve. Coalfield communities deserve to be at the forefront of economic renewal they want the government to show them that they matter.

“I know from first-hand experience that communities in the coalfields are resilient and industrious and ready to succeed—they just need the opportunity to do so.”

ENDS