Wales should follow example of Western Australia in attracting doctors and nurses, says Ben Lake MP
Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli, Ben Lake, has said that Wales should follow the lead of regions like Western Australia in attracting workers to fill skill shortages in public services through promotional campaigns.
He warned that rural depopulation in Wales could lead to a “collapse of public services” without government intervention to retain young people in rural areas and attract workers from other parts of the world.
Western Australia launched a campaign last year targeting workers in the UK and Ireland, enticing them with promises of higher salaries, a better quality of life, and lower living costs. WA government minister Paul Papalia declared in the promotion, “We are here to steal your workers by offering them a better life in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.”
Ben Lake MP highlighted the “many benefits of rural living” in Wales and urged both the Welsh and UK governments to do more to attract key workers to rural communities. He noted that Ceredigion recorded a 5.9% decrease in its population in the last census, while Pembrokeshire's population remained stagnant. The constituency is experiencing the “real consequences of depopulation,” including a shortage of GPs, the absence of NHS dental services in much of the region, school closures, and the lack of banking facilities.
Rural Wales will face a “collapse of public services” unless the Welsh Government, together with the UK Government, which holds all powers relating to immigration in Wales, take action to help attract workers.
Speaking in Westminster this week, Ben Lake MP said:
“I represent Ceredigion Preseli. At the last census, Ceredigion—the majority of my constituency—recorded a 5.9% decrease in its overall population, and the communities in Preseli or Pembrokeshire that I now represent saw their population flatline. This is a problem that we are very much living with today. What does it mean? In practice, it means that we are having very difficult discussions about, for example, the provision of public services and whether the school estate is sustainable for the future. We are talking about the lack of GPs and the fact that we do not have an NHS dentist any more in much of the constituency. There are three well-known banks in the UK that no longer have a single branch in the two counties that I represent. This is the real consequence of depopulation.
He continued:
“This is something that the UK Government can help with, and it should be on their radar. When the Cabinet Office looks at the range of risks it must monitor as part of its remit—something that the Public Accounts Committee discussed in the previous Parliament—it should look at how the discrepancies in demographic trends across these islands might have an impact on key public services, because in certain areas of rural Wales we will, I am afraid, see a collapse of public services. That will have a knock-on impact on more urban areas, which are themselves struggling with different demographic pressures.
“This is an important debate, and I would ask the Home Office Minister to consider, as part of her important work in this new Parliament, the lessons to be drawn from experiences across the world. My hon. Friend the Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart, SNP) mentioned the experience of Quebec. As west Walians, we often turn on the radio to hear adverts from the Government of Western Australia trying to attract many of our young doctors and nurses to migrate to that part of the world. Are there incentives we could use to persuade more of our young people to stay or to attract those from other parts of the world? There are many benefits to rural living. Perhaps we could be more creative in grasping this problem by the scruff of the neck, because I fear we do not have much time left to deal with it.”
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