Adam Price backs our pledge to tackle the next generation’s momentous task

Wales is the birthplace of our Future Generations campaign and Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price is keen to see the idea spread beyond the country.

He has backed our Future Generations Pledge ahead of the general election, joining 350 other politicians, including fellow leaders Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon.

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 came into force in Wales in 2016 to act as a bulwark against short-termism. It created the role of Future Generations Commissioner for Sophie Howe and since then she has scrutinised decisions made public bodies to assess how they have an impact on generations to come.

I'm proud to back @BigIssue's Future Generations Pledge so that we leave our children and grandchildren a Wales and a world that they can be proud of. #todayfortomorrow

Read more here: https://t.co/IpGKkzicr8pic.twitter.com/FWQKg2nIih

— Adam Price 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏳️‍🌈 (@Adamprice) December 2, 2019

Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has long been an admirer of the legislation and it has inspired his own bid to create a UK-wide Future Generations Commissioner through his Future Generations Bill. That will be reintroduced to Parliament after the general election but in the meantime we have been asking politicians to back our pledge.

So it is only fitting that Plaid Cymru Leader Price has thrown his weight behind the pledge.

“Plaid Cymru is proud to support John Bird and The Big Issue’s Future Generations Pledge,” he told The Big Issue.

“We have set out our plan to tackle the defining challenge of our age – climate change – with a £20 billion Green Jobs Revolution precisely because we recognise the need to act urgently to arrest climate change, and to create the jobs of the future so that our people can benefit from our nation’s wealth of natural resources.

“Wales also faces another huge challenge – poverty. Despite being a nation rich in national resources and in the talents and skills of our people, 200,000 children in Wales still live in poverty. That’s why we’ve set out our plan to introduce a Welsh Child Payment – a £35 a week payment for every child in a low-income family – which would lift 50,000 children out of poverty immediately, alongside a new vision for care from cradle to grave.

“We have set out our plan for a National Reconstruction Fund to rebuild Wales. An incoming Plaid Cymru government in 2021 will embark upon the biggest programme of reconstruction our nation has seen since devolution. We have a comprehensive plan for national infrastructure and green investment designed to reverse decades of decline.

“This momentous task will take a generation, but we must start now in order to ensure that we leave our children and grandchildren a Wales and a world that they can be proud of.”