Programme for government 2026 to 2030: New ambition for Wales - Chapter 7: Delivering our priorities

“ Cymraeg is one of Wales’s greatest strengths. Rooted in our history and central to our future, it enriches our communities, culture and public life.”

This is an ambitious and far-reaching Programme for Government which sets a clear agenda for the whole of government and our partners for the coming 4 years. We know that taking traditional approaches to government is not going to achieve the scale of change that we want.

We are committed to using all of the levers of government to support our goal of improving the lives of people in Wales.

We are taking a new approach to governing to realise our ambitions for Wales. Good intentions and strategies are not enough to deliver meaningful outcomes. They need to be matched with action. Building on our interactive digital dashboards, we will continue to develop a set of outcomes which will measure the impact that we are having and to help ensure that these commitments deliver changes for the people of Wales.

We also recognise that many of the challenges that we face are deep rooted and stubborn. It is only when all ministers work together that we can be confident that we will deliver our priorities and find solutions to complex issues that have scarred our communities for too long. Our work has to be developed and delivered across government.

All of our work will be shaped by this ethos and considering how each area of spend can contribute to our wider objectives will be a core consideration. However, there are some areas where we recognise that we need to do more to join up. We will therefore take a dedicated and structured cross‑government approach in a number of areas to make quick progress on key actions.

It has long been recognised that reducing carbon emissions and adapting to a changing climate are objectives that will shape the work of all departments, and require us to change how we deliver programmes in many areas.

We will strengthen climate resilience and tackle pollution and ensure that working towards our climate and nature ambitions delivers healthier communities, stronger rural and coastal economies and greater resilience for future generations.

We recognise the inter‑connectedness of action on housing, preventative health, energy infrastructure, food and farming along with the impact of a changing climate and the human cost of flooding, heat and pollution.

We will:

• ensure climate action and nature are prioritised and effectively coordinated across government, embedding decarbonisation, sustainability and environmental protection across all portfolios.
• take bold action to improve air quality, reduce waste and tackle pollution by keeping materials in use for longer, and ensuring the polluter pays as we transition to a circular economy.
• apply a whole‑system, catchment‑based approach to improve water quality and strengthen climate and nature resilience in Wales. Our ambition is for every water body in Wales to be on a clear trajectory towards good status. Working in partnership across sectors, we will accelerate delivery of nature‑based solutions that reduce pollution and build resilience to future environmental pressures.
• develop and implement a cross‑government Climate and Nature Action Plan for Wales, supported by a Climate and Nature Board. The plan will strengthen climate and nature resilience, enhance environmental sustainability, support a just transition and identify practical action towards a pathway to net zero by 2040. As part of the plan, we will set ambitious targets to achieve substantive nature recovery by 2050.
• establish a strong and independent Office for Environmental Governance Wales to hold public authorities to account for delivering environmental targets.

Cymraeg is one of Wales’s greatest strengths. Rooted in our history and central to our future, it enriches our communities, culture and public life. Our commitment to a thriving language underpins everything that we do, and promoting and embedding it is the responsibility of every minister.

We want Welsh to be a language that belongs to us all, with opportunities for people to learn it, use it and live their lives through it – and so do the people of Wales. This is central to how we will deliver services in Wales, with services available in English and Welsh. Supporting a thriving Welsh language will help drive prosperity, empower communities, foster a sense of belonging and ensure Cymraeg continues to flourish for future generations.

We will:

• publish and implement a new strategy for Cymraeg with a renewed focus on increasing the number of speakers to a million and more by 2050, doubling the daily use of the language, and ensuring that the language belongs to us all in Wales.
• work to strengthen the resilience of Cymraeg as a community language and in workplaces, implementing the recommendations of the commission for Welsh‑speaking communities, and work towards designating areas of higher linguistic sensitivity and protecting Welsh place names.
• work towards extending Welsh Language Standards to UK government bodies and to services operating in Wales, and ensure that Cymraeg is at the heart of all public policy, including health, housing, planning, transport, education, culture and the economy.

Good health is a prerequisite for a happy, long and active life. It unlocks our ability to reach our potential and to play an active part in our communities, education and in the economy. Equally, creating a healthier environment and delivering effective services – such as housing, education and culture – can shape behaviours and improve our overall health. The greatest opportunity lies in preventing disease before it starts or progresses, and in narrowing the wide gaps in health outcomes within communities.

We are taking collaborative and targeted action across government to create a healthier population and tackle root causes of ill health and health inequalities. Improvements in population health are fundamental to achieving our ambitions for economic renewal, the best start in life for children, learning outcomes, equality, climate transition, strong public services and national resilience.

We will promote a healthier environment that supports healthier choices and transforms life chances for people of all ages. This includes supporting children to have the best start in life and improving physical and mental health and wellbeing for everyone.

Drawing on all the levers of government, we will work towards increasing healthy life expectancy across Wales through action at both national and local levels.

Through our National Food Strategy, we will build a healthier, fairer and more sustainable food system that supports Welsh producers, strengthens food security and ensures everyone can access nutritious, affordable food wherever they live.

Better access to our culture and heritage, and opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity are crucial and will be reflected in our Culture and Sport Strategy and Climate and Nature plan.

Our commitments for the transport system recognise the importance of active travel to making exercise an easy daily choice. All of these actions will improve the health of the nation, reducing economic inactivity, enabling more people to work and contributing to our national productivity mission.

We will:

• improve public health and wellbeing at population level by developing a new, comprehensive Public Health Strategy and Framework for Wales, based on a root and branch review of current and future public health needs.
• embed health prevention in all policy development across government ensuring strategic alignment of government action on the social determinants of health and wellbeing.
• harness expertise and plans to minimise the impact of communicable diseases with a focus on elimination targets by 2030 for tuberculosis and blood-borne viruses including HIV.
• make the renewal of Welsh housing stock a national mission, along with reforms to ensure greater security for renters and increased availability of social housing. Safe and adequate housing is an essential bedrock of health.
• embed a Housing First, trauma‑informed and person‑centred approach to tackling homelessness, ensuring our new homelessness legislation is implemented effectively and kept under review. Our Housing and Regeneration Strategy will be rooted in the ambition that everyone should have a safe and secure home.
• invest in the preventative role of culture, heritage and sports to promote good health for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
• deliver a national School Swimming and Water Safety programme, giving every pupil in Wales a foundation for an active, healthy life, building their confidence, and keeping children safe around water.

This new approach to healthy living places as much emphasis on preventing avoidable illnesses as it does on treating illness when it occurs. This is about putting the tools for healthy living within reach of people, and delivering services in a way which help to make people’s lives healthier.

We outline a number of actions that we will take, but we know that in order to meet our ambitions we will need to do more. This is an ambition that stretches across ministerial responsibilities, and where we need to work differently to devise programmes that can make a difference. To support work on this and help us to work differently, we will convene a cross‑government ministerial working group. This will ensure that actions in Housing, Culture and Sport, Transport and Education are all contributing to the prevention of ill‑health and the eradication of social determinants of poor health and shorter healthy life expectancy. We will report on that work to the Senedd.

We have identified closing the productivity gap with the UK as the thing that will unlock Wales’s potential and drive economic growth. This is an agenda that is about supporting businesses directly, but is also about ensuring that there is the right infrastructure around them to help them scale up. We know that this is about the transport links, the planning system, the skills of people as well as the way that a range of government policy can make it easier, or more difficult, for businesses to operate.

Establishing a new National Development Agency will be key to our productivity mission, but we also want to ensure that all departments play their part in creating the conditions for success. Our national productivity mission is a galvanising force across government, recognising that decisions taken across all departments will have an impact on our local and national productivity. As we develop policy and deliver actions in this programme, we will continue to consider how they can support this mission.

Our programme of primary and secondary legislation plays an important part in delivering this agenda. Legislation is not always the best way of delivering our objectives, but there are areas where putting something on a statutory footing will help us to deliver and embed the changes we are committed to making. We will legislate where needed to improve outcomes for the people of Wales, but we will also consider non-legislative solutions through policy and partnership working where this can be effective.

Across the whole of the term of this government, we will bring forward legislation to deliver our agenda. The First Minister has already announced the first phase of this government’s legislative programme for the Seventh Senedd, including housing, community ownership and rural proofing, important first steps in delivering this Programme for Government.

We will regularly update the Senedd on our legislative proposals, and on subsequent phases of our legislative programme, as we work through the detail of delivering the commitments set out in this programme. Our preference will always be for the Senedd to pass legislation that shapes people’s lives in Wales. However, there will be occasions when UK legislation is the most practical and effective approach, and we will work with the UK government on this. This reflects the constitutional principle that the UK Parliament only legislates in these areas with the Senedd’s agreement.

This Programme for Government sets out the steps that we will take to drive change across all of the communities in Wales.

Governing Wales is not just about a change agenda; it is also about making sure that there is constancy in the delivery of high‑quality public services.

We are clear about how we can make these better, but we are also committed to maintaining effective and efficient services that people depend on in their day‑to‑day lives.

Governing is also about keeping Wales safe, and this is a responsibility that we take seriously. That means making sure we have services that people can rely on in emergencies, such as wildfires. It is also about making sure that we are prepared for all eventualities and undertake the necessary emergency preparedness and resilience arrangements, working with the police, fire and rescue services and other partners to take action in the event of emergency. We are also committed to learning lessons from our response to incidents – most importantly we are committed to ensuring we learn the lessons from Covid.

As our climate changes, we know adverse weather events will become more common and building flood resilient communities in particular becomes more pressing. Whilst we cannot prevent all flooding, we will need to support communities and business to prepare to mitigate the economic, social and mental health impacts of flooding when it happens.

We will:

• work with our newly created Flood Forum for Wales to bring together local authorities, Natural Resources Wales, emergency services, and community organisations to coordinate national strategy on flooding.

There are many organisations and people across Wales who share our objectives and who can help us deliver our agenda. Arm’s length bodies and government agencies are important delivery agents, and we will give them a clear mandate and work collaboratively to achieve better outcomes for the people of Wales.

We recognise the important role that the voluntary sector plays in delivering public services, along with our schools, colleges, universities, health services and the wider public sector. We are committed to ensuring efficiency, good value for money, sharing of best practice and enhanced productivity across the whole public and third sectors.

Local government are a key partner in many of our endeavours – delivering effective education, providing social care and helping us to expand funded childcare. We will build effective partnerships so that we can deliver our shared objectives together. 

We will:

• renew the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Welsh Government and local authorities, ensuring they are involved in the design and delivery of public services and we will support effective regional collaboration.
• review the funding formula for local government to better reflect the real cost of delivering services in different parts of Wales and introduce a funding floor to ensure that no local authority is disproportionately impacted.

Partnership working in Wales is made easier by the Well‑being of Future Generations Act which gives public bodies a framework to help them drive action that contributes to the wellbeing goals.

We have brought our Programme for Government and wellbeing objectives together into a single framework for action. The priorities set out in this document are also our wellbeing objectives. They reflect the priorities on which we were elected, the long‑term outcomes we want to achieve for Wales, and our commitment to improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing of current and future generations.

The commitments in this Programme for Government represent the reasonable steps we will take to achieve these objectives. Together, they provide a clear line between our long‑term ambitions for Wales and the practical action we will take to deliver them. Delivery of our commitments will be accompanied by impact assessment. This mechanism, which requires meaningful involvement, is an essential part of building a comprehensive and balanced case for policy options or legislative proposals and covers a wide range of areas including equality, Welsh language, children’s rights and environmental impact.

This programme is intended to cover the entire period of the government. However, we will carry out a mid‑term review. This will allow flexibility for the government to respond to unforeseen policy shifts, economic or geopolitical shocks in a conscious and considered way.

Our accompanying Well‑being Statement explains how these objectives contribute to the 7 wellbeing goals, how they have been developed in accordance with the sustainable development principle, how we will work with others in delivering them, and how progress will be monitored and reported throughout this Senedd term.

Our Well-being Objectives are:

1. Building a health and care service fit for the future, and cutting waiting lists
2. Helping households with the cost of living
3. Unleashing the potential of the Welsh economy, and creating good well-paid jobs
4. Raising standards in our schools, and ensuring the best conditions for learning
5. Tackling child poverty and securing the best future for every child in Wales
6. Standing up for Wales and demanding fairness from Westminster
7. Better government – delivering our priorities.