The core difference is that GVA per capita measures general economic welfare across a total population, while GVA per hour worked measures actual labour efficiency and productivity by tracking how much economic value is generated for every hour of work actually put in.

This is still an ambitious target. GVA per hour worked hasn’t reached 92% of the UK average since 1976, which incidentally is the year that the original Welsh Development Agency was created.

Wales has consistently failed on this measure since the outset of devolution, whilst Scotland has closed the gap and Northern Ireland is making good progress. For both devolved nations, investment in innovation and infrastructure, in particular, appear to have been major drivers of success, so what can we do here in Wales?

Machinery for growth

Plaid Cymru has committed to deliver growth at pace, with a series of commitments to be achieved within the first 100 days, which takes us to 20 August. Amongst these commitments are a number of pledges to create new institutional capacity in Wales, which will affect economic development, energy, housing and property:

• An expert panel to refine the remit, governance and funding model for a new National Development Agency
• A Town Centres Taskforce
• An Economic and Fiscal Commission
• Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru merging with Ynni Cymru and the Welsh Government Energy Service to create a single national energy company with an enhanced role in developing renewable energy projects
• Unnos – a new national development body to assemble land and finance for social housing

Enough to shift the dial?

Are these levers enough to boost demand for Welsh talent and thus significantly shift the dial?

How will a new National Development Agency work given that we already have four regional development agencies in the guise of Growth Deals and Corporate Joint Committees, which cover the nation and are already endowed with statutory powers in regional transport, strategic planning and economic wellbeing?

And how might a new economic development landscape enhance investment and innovation in sub-regional strengths – such as the nascent agri-tech sector in Mid Wales, advanced manufacturing in our north-east and south-east corners, potential for floating offshore wind in South West Wales, Wylfa and Morlais on Anglesey, and potential for the Metro to unleash place-based social and economic regeneration across valleys communities?

The new government has also identified the need to build our stock of small and medium-sized enterprises across Wales to boost productivity growth, and the Plaid Cymru manifesto suggests further reform to business support arrangements.

Culture change for housing delivery

With limitations to social housing grants (SHG) and wider public expenditure pressures, which the new finance minister has described as “extremely difficult”, the need to meet social housing supply ambitions will require more innovation and a greater willingness to take risk.

Can Unnos, the government’s recently established housing development agency, help ensure this change in culture, to support delivery? With an average subsidy of £220,000 per house and a 20,000 housing delivery target, this could cost £4.4 billion in SHG by 2030.

Will form follow function?

It is an interesting time to assess how we can align existing institutions and build new ones capable of leveraging Wales’ economic potential, targeting scale-ups, selling Wales abroad and boosting inward investment. I have raised a lot of questions but perhaps the most important one is this: will ‘form follow function’, and could this lead to increased ability to deliver real change across the investment and innovation landscape?

The clock is ticking. Senedd terms have been reduced from five years to four, and half the first 100 days have gone. With only three years and eight months until the next devolved election campaign, can the creation of these new levers move the economic and regeneration trajectory of Wales?

Further information

Contact Nick Bennett