Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Why Cardiff Demands Better
Cardiff remains a profoundly unequal city – if politicians and bosses won't do something, workers have to, argues Wales TUC general secretary SHAVANAH TAJ
Cardiff's skyline [Mike Erskine / Creative Commons]

IF YOU live in Wales but outside Cardiff then you probably think that the capital city gets more than its fair share of everything. It holds most of the political power, what passes for civil society in Wales is rooted here, it gets a disproportionate amount of investment, and it’s richer than most of the country. 

But step away from the parochial framing and it becomes obvious that Cardiff has been let down by 12 years of Tory rule at Westminster just as much as everywhere else in Wales. 

Whether you’re looking at job quality, incomes, childcare, housing or transport - austerity and the endless squeeze on public budgets have progressively chipped away at the city’s ability to provide the most basic building blocks of a good life. 

  • Fair funding for Wales– funding that properly reflects the pressures that our public services are confronting.
  • A plan to get pay rising for everyone with a higher minimum wage at £15 per hour and new rights for unions to set minimum pay and conditions across the economy.
  • Long overdue fair funding for capital investment in Wales so that we can build the modern, green infrastructure that the country needs to drive up living standards.
  • A plan to bring forward the uprating of benefits at least in line with inflation to ensure that people are getting the money they need in their pockets now and not having to wait until April next year.
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
FOR THE CROWN NOT THE PEOPLE: Gwynt y Mor II, Wales' largest
Features / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
LUKE FLETCHER fleshes out Plaid Cymru's plan for the revitalisation of Wales's economy
International Women's Day 2025 / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
Persistent inequality for women shows we still have a long way to go, but Wales TUC leader SHAVANAH TAJ is confident we can build a fairer country when we work together
 NOT ENOUGH: Rachel Reeves leaves 11 Downing Street, with he
Features / 2 November 2024
2 November 2024
The first Budget of the Labour government falls far short of addressing Wales’s needs, maintaining austerity-era policies while providing inadequate funding for critical services and infrastructure, writes LUKE FLETCHER MS