Julia Unwin CBE, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, delivered the keynote lecture at the launch of the University of Glamorgan’s Centre for Advanced Studies in Public Policy (CASPP) last night, 19th February.

During her lecture, Julia argued that the UK risks facing a decade of destitution – compounded by a ‘perfect storm’ of three pressure systems – money, systemic failure of the welfare system and, crucially, the language we use to describe people and places in poverty.

She said, “I believe we will witness people in the sort of poverty we did not expect to see on these shores.”

The lecture at Cardiff Bay’s Pierhead building marked the launch of CASPP which aims to be Wales’s leading hub for public policy analysis and equal to the best in the UK.

The Centre provides policymakers and professionals with fresh thinking, new evidence and, above all, innovative solutions to the challenges they face in effecting changes in public service organisation and delivery.

Speaking about the new Centre Professor Julie Lydon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan said, “The University’s Centre for Advanced Studies in Public Policy is the home of applied research for real decisions.

“This is a new initiative. We are drawing together the academic expertise of a diverse professional university into a single place where experts on regeneration, business, public services, health, and transport can work together to address the great issues of our day.

“It’s led by our academics, and it’s something that I support wholeheartedly as Vice-Chancellor of the University and it will be strengthened further as we expand with our colleagues in Newport to become a truly regional university.

“We want to be an intellectual forum that brings together the business leaders, elected representatives, think tanks, and public servants in whose hands the levers of regeneration sit.”

The event was held in partnership with the Centre for Regeneration Excellence Wales (CREW).