The debate about the credit crunch has mostly been about banks, shareholders, the Treasury and first time buyers, and not a lot about the people who always bear the brunt of any economic crisis - the less well off. It might all seem a long way away but the credit crunch is here in Wales and its time the Welsh Assembly Government started to think about how to cope with the consequences.
We could see the return of loan sharks as people can longer borrow from the likes of Ocean Finance and Picture; we could see more homes repossessed as hard-up owners can't afford to pay their mortgages; and we could see people desparate for a home but unable to borrow the money to buy one. Add to this the risk of blight as unsellable houses are boarded up, as construction sites are put on stop, and jobs lost in finance companies based in Wales.
So, there needs to be an urgent increase in the capacity of Citizens' Advice Bureaux and credit unions, a big investment in social housing, and urgent discussions with developers about their intentions, to name but a few.
There is some argument that the credit crunch will blow over, and is only the market rectifying itself, but meanwhile hundreds if not thousands of people could suffer - time for WAG to do something.
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3 comments:
or may be its high time people started living to their means
Credit unions are used more bu middle class people than the poor
Citizens Advice similar scene
what we need is outreach help by understanding people
Easy to say if you have a reasonable income. The reality is that some families' incomes are so low that an unexpected bill - whether for repairs to the car, a new washing machine or someone falling ill and being unable to work - can be enough to tip them into debt.
your point about WAG doing something is valid, but with Wales set to take the brunt of the credit crunch what you are proposing is tinkering round the edges, if we had control over out own tax system then maybe we could so something and also do Rhodri and his colleagues have the economic know how, the financial understanding, or the political will to do anything is the questions I would ask. With the local elections looming they missed an excellent opportunity to show they are still in touch will the real world.
We have the lowest wages and the highest personal debt in Wales, something that WAG and the wider National Assembly has known about for a long time and as usual done nothing about, this has just stored up problems for individuals and the wider economy and you don't have to be a finance whizz to know that.
To solve these problems what WAG need is a fundamental change of heart on economic matters to raise skill and wage levels, to offer better jobs and so on because without it all of us in Wales will continue to be hit the hardest in times like these poor or not.
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