Good to be here Positive aspects of the Heads of the Valleys Acknowledgments The Bevan Foundation gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Welsh Assembly Government, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, Caerphilly Teaching Local Health Board and Tydfil Training Ltd., and an anonymous individual. The views in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders nor are they necessarily the views of the Bevan Foundation’s Trustees or members. About the Bevan Foundation The Bevan Foundation supports social justice in Wales through research, discussion and publications. Our work helps to set and inform the public policy agenda in Wales, particularly on poverty and social exclusion. We are independent of government, political parties or interest groups. Membership is open to individuals, third sector organizations, businesses and government bodies. E R E H The Bevan Foundation E B Innovation Centre O T Festival Drive D O Ebbw Vale O G Blaenau Gwent N NP23 8XA O I T A D N Tel: 01495 356702 [email protected] www.bevanfoundation.org U O F N ISBN 978-1-904767-36-7 A V E B Report Author: Victoria Winckler 2 Date: 4th June 2009 The Bevan Foundation is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity no. 1104191 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 1. INTRODUCTION 5 2. ENVIRONMENT 7 3. ECONOMY AND EMPLOYMENT 14 4. LEARNING AND SKILLS 20 5. HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE 25 6. QUALITY OF LIFE 34 7. CONCLUSION 42 E R E H E B O T D O O G N O I T A D N U O F N A V E B 3 Executive summary 1. The Heads of the Valleys is best known for poverty and disadvantage. However there are many positive aspects of the area that are much less well known. This report uses independent evidence to identify the good features. 2. Highlighting the positive characteristics does not undermine the importance of tackling the area’s continuing problems. Importantly, it can help ensure public policy is fully informed. 3. The environment emerges as a major asset. The countryside and access to it, air and water quality, and aspects of the local environment are all first class. 4. The economy and labour market have key strengths too. There are successful, innovative and award-winning businesses, and a substantial number of employees in a wide range of occupations, some of them comfortably off. 5. The workforce has many skills to offer. A substantial proportion of the population is highly qualified, and every year several thousand school leavers move into higher education. Schools are, in a number of important ways, better than those in other parts of south east Wales, which is reflected in the many awards won. 6. Health and social care services face heavy demands but on a number of criteria offer better care than their counterparts in other parts of Wales. These too have been recognized by independent bodies. 7. The Heads of the Valleys offer a good quality of life. It has a unique culture and heritage, an increasingly vibrant contemporary arts scene, and distinctive and affordable housing. Community life is strong and relatively safe. 8. Public policy needs to make the most of these positive features to build a successful and prosperous region. This must be at the same time as tackling poverty and disadvantage - both approaches are vital to the prosperity of the area. E R E H E B O T D O O G N O I T A D N U O F N A V E B 4 View of Tylorstown E L D E E N Y R R A B : O T O H P 1Introduction Barely a week seems to go by without a headline proclaiming that Merthyr Tydfil has the lowest level of some desirable socio-economic feature or that Blaenau Gwent has the highest level of some undesirable attribute. The headlines are indeed correct that the Heads of the Valleys consistently come top of league tables of all kinds of social and economic problems, from economic inactivity to teenage pregnancy, from ill-health to young people not in education, employment or training. But the headlines are also very wrong. Because alongside the deep-seated and very serious problems in the area, there are also some very strong and positive features. To many people’s surprise, there are in fact many good aspects of life in the Heads of the Valleys. The pernicious drip of negative news and sorry statistics has contributed to a very powerful image of the Heads of the Valleys as deprived, disadvantaged and declining. The Heads of the Valleys in general, and Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent in particular, have become synonymous with poverty. Their problems are believed to be universal, all aspects of life are believed to be substandard, and nothing good can ever be achieved. This negative picture matters a great deal, because it damages efforts to regenerate the area and dents the confidence of those who do live and work in the Heads of the Valleys. People do not want to live, work, visit or invest in an area which they believe to be ‘poverty ridden’, a ‘sickness capital’ or ‘one of the ten worst places in Britain’, even though the Heads of the Valleys might be the ideal location for their business or to pursue a career. It also matters because the emphasis on the problems may mean that public policy does not address the bigger picture. For example, there is undoubtedly a problem of few or no qualifications amongst school leavers. However, there are also hundreds of school leavers with excellent qualifications, who may well leave the area if there are not suitable jobs for them. It is crucial to stress that highlighting the positive features does not cancel out or offset the E R problems, or somehow make socio-economic disadvantage more acceptable. They do not. The E H E problems of poverty and social exclusion remain and the need to address them is as pressing B O T as ever. D O O G N O I This paper T A D N U O The aim of this report is to highlight some of the positive aspects of the Heads of the Valleys. F N A V Importantly, the paper uses objective evidence to substantiate claims about positive features of E the Heads of the Valleys. It draws on various government statistics, inspection reports and B results from independent Wales- or GB-wide competitions, and consumer feedback. 5 Heads of the Valleys Area We hope that the material included will encourage people to rethink their ideas about the Heads of the Valleys, although it is not a marketing exercise. It should be a resource for policy makers, opinion formers, journalists and politicians. Lastly, it is important to stress that this report is emphatically not seeking to downplay the problems of the area – they are very real and urgently need to be addressed. Indeed, we hope that it contributes to efforts to regenerate the area by highlighting the potential for development. Nor is it in any way an evaluation of the Heads of the Valleys programme or any other regeneration initiative, nor a catalogue of all the initiatives in the area. What we hope the report does achieve is a counter-balance to the negative stereotypes of the area. In so doing, it may persuade people both within the area and elsewhere that it is not such a bad place after all. A Note on Geography The Heads of the Valleys programme area is not matched by any local authority or other E R E H boundaries, which creates considerable problems gathering data. Some statistics for the E B programme area were produced by the Welsh Assembly Government as baseline data for the O T D programme, but these are increasingly out of date and also mostly negative. The Welsh O O G Assembly Government has produced more up to date data for the Wales Spatial Plan Heads of N O I the Valleys area, but has wider geographical coverage than the programme area. These T A D N sources have been used where they are the only data available. Otherwise, statistics have been U O F used for Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent, both of which are wholly within the Heads of the N A V E Valleys area. However, these two authorities only comprise a proportion of the area’s B population, and do not include those parts of the programme area in Rhondda Cynon Taf, 6 Caerphilly or Torfaen. 2Natural and built environment The environment is one of the few areas where it is generally acknowledged that the Heads of the Valleys has improved considerably in recent years, not least through the large-scale reclamation of coal tips and waste land and improvement of housing. Nevertheless, it is often not appreciated just how good the environment of the Heads of the Valleys is today. Natural Environment The Heads of the Valleys area is dominated by its natural environment, which accounts for 87 per cent of land-use. About 35 per cent of land is semi-natural upland habitats, e.g. heath, bracken and other grassland; about 19 per cent is improved grassland, and 17 per cent is forested. 1 The combination of natural and man-made features, geography and geology has created a striking landscape. Not only is it deemed to be top of the Rough Guide to Wales’s list of places to visit because it is ‘interesting and distinctive, 2 it has also been described by various commentators in glowing terms: Majestic mountains, country parks, forests, waterfalls, natural and man-made lakes contrast with the unique built environment to produce an intriguing landscape SouthernWales.com 3 [an] amazing and diverse landscape Dan Clayton Jones, Chairman Big Lottery Fund 4 a unique, roller-coaster landscape of hills and vale VisitBritain.com 5 The Valleys of South Wales are … a special part of Wales, with unexpected E R E beauty, their country parks and forests and their attractions.