The First Minister said: “The coalition agreement has provided a stable platform for the Assembly Government that enables us to honour our promises to the people of Wales. We are forging ahead with our programme against an increasingly tough financial background. We have every reason for believing that we are well on target to achieve our goals. Although the One Wales programme is a four year programme work is well advanced on more than half our One Wales commitments.”
It was also announced today that Gerald Holtham has been appointed chair of the independent commission on funding and finance – fulfilling yet another commitment.
Among the achievements of the Labour-led Welsh Assembly Government in its first year are:
- The All Wales Convention. Members of the Executive Committee were named last week
- Appointing Gerald Holtham as Chair of the Independent Commission on Funding and Finance
- Ending the internal market in the NHS
- Ending competitive tendering for NHS cleaning contracts
- Introducing a new national oral health action plan
- Investing £15m in an action plan to improve care for people suffering chronic conditions
- A new NHS Redress Measure giving patients fairer access to compensation when things go wrong
- Creating a single investment fund, radically changing the way the Assembly Government supports business in Wales
- A new transport strategy
- A new Learner Transport Measure to improve school transport and to promote access to Welsh medium education
- Approving 27 business ventures with a total investment of £504 million with aid from the European Convergence Programme
- Giving local authorities greater freedom to designate non-development sites for affordable housing
- An action plan to tackle bovine TB
- Increasing the Social Housing Grant to £107 million per year with a pledge to provide 6,500 affordable new homes over four years
- Boosting the availability of affordable housing in rural areas
- Established the Child Poverty Expert Group
- Investing £10.5 million in Libraries for Life, a three year strategy to improve libraries
- Investing £200,000 a year in a new daily Welsh language news service to meet the demands of the 21st Century
The First Minister said: “This Government is delivering on its promises to the people of Wales. I am proud of what we have already achieved, and look forward to delivering more exciting new policies that will benefit the lives of everyone in Wales in the months to come.”
