Spring Conference 2025
Conference Review
For our 2025 Welsh Spring Conference, members from across Wales gathered at the Holiday Inn, Cardiff City Centre, from 4th to 6th April.
A wide range of organisations and businesses joined us to exhibit, host fringe meetings, and engage with party members throughout the weekend.
Below, you’ll find the motions which were passed, along with highlights from the weekend’s key activities and events.
Empowering Communities: Unlocking Potential, Creating Change
Hosted by Building Communities Trust
Community groups have a powerful role in many Welsh places.
Building Communities Trust and Action in Caerau and Ely (ACE) explained how community groups sustain critical social infrastructure and provide opportunities for people to socialise, gain skills and create change in their areas.
The doscussion explored what’s needed to make the vision for a Wales where community groups are recognised, respected and protected, a reality.
Chaired by: Councillor Rhys Taylor
Speaker: Dave Horton, Learning and Training Director, ACE
Manifesto Ideas Lab: Getting Wales Working
Hosted in partnership with Whitehead-Ross Education
This was an opportunity for members to discuss ideas for helping people find work or return to the workforce. Topics under discussion included:
- Retraining and skills.
- Supporting working families.
- Long-term wellbeing and economic benefits of getting Wales working.
Whitehead-Ross Education is an education and skills organisation that operates training centres in South Wales and supports more than 3,500 people every year. Its work includes support for unemployed individuals to secure and retain jobs through employability programmes, adult education and social service provision.
Why Wales needs a Right to Rehab
Hosted by Asthma + Lung UK Cymru
At Asthma + Lung UK Cymru, we believe that everyone has the right to breathe clean air. We campaign for the 1 in 5 people living with a lung condition in Wales for better diagnosis, treatment, care and support. We want to reduce levels of smoking and combat air pollution.
Panel:
- Jane Dodds MS
- Joseph Carter, Asthma + Lung UK Cymru
- Calum Higgins, Chartered Society of Therapy Wales
- Nic Perry-Gower, Swansea Bay UHB
People, Planet, Prosperity: Building a common vision for a fair and inclusive Welsh Economy
Hosted by Oxfam Cymru
What would a just transition look like if care for people and the planet was truly at its heart?
This session explored how feminist economics, climate justice, and wellbeing economy principles can shape Wales’s journey towards a greener economy that values and invests in care.
Drawing on emerging research on a Wellbeing Economy for Wales and a vision for a Green New Deal rooted in feminist principles, the panel reimagined an economy where care – for each other, our communities, and the environment – is recognised as vital, not invisible. An economy that prioritises the wellbeing of those most impacted by inequality and the climate crisis — leaving no one behind.
Conference attendees were invited to join a forward-looking discussion on how Wales can lead the way in a just transition to a fairer, greener, and caring economy.
Panellists and facilitators
Hade Turkmen, Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Oxfam Cymru
hturkmen1@oxfam.org.uk
Joe Rossiter, Co-director, Institute of Welsh Affairs
joe.rossiter@iwa.org.uk
Making Good Housing a Right for All
Hosted by Tai Pawb
Wales has a housing emergency - record numbers of people in temporary accommodation, social housing waiting lists and a lack of suitable homes. For people impacted, this affects every aspect of their lives. Can we address intractable issues like child poverty and poor health if we don’t resolve our housing emergency? Attendees were invited to learn how a rights-based approach to housing can transform Wales and be the 21st Century’s equivalent of the creation of the NHS.
Panellists included representatives from Shelter Cymru, the Chartered Institute of Housing and Tai Pawb.
Welsh Local Government Association - The Voice of Welsh Councils
We are the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA); a politically led cross-party organisation that seeks to give local government a strong voice at a national level. We represent the interests of local government and promote local democracy in Wales.
The 22 councils in Wales are our members and the three fire and rescue authorities and three national park authorities are associate members.
The Older People's Commissioner for Wales
The Older People's Commissioner for Wales is an independent champion for older people throughout Wales.
The Commissioner is working for a Wales that leads the way in empowering older people, tackling inequality and enabling everyone to live and age well.
Green Gen Cymru
We want to make sure Wales has the energy it needs in a Net Zero world.
There’s endless potential for renewable energy in Wales – particularly from the wind that blows across our hills and mountains. But the green energy is stuck in the windy areas of Wales, and we need to get it to the homes, hospitals, schools, businesses, and communities that need it. To respond to this challenge and meet Welsh Government’s target for 100% renewable electricity in Wales by 2035, we’re developing a stronger, more resilient renewable electricity network that is greatly needed in Wales – distributing clean, green energy.
We want to build a positive, clean future for us all.
Carers Wales
There are over 310,000 unpaid carers in Wales, playing a vital role in the lives of the people they care for and saving the Welsh Government over £10 billion per year with the care they provide.
Carers Wales, part of Carers UK, exists to make unpaid carers' lives better. We provide information and advice about caring roles, champion carers' rights and campaign alongside unpaid carers to see more carers get the support they need. If you're looking after someone, or want to hear how you can help support people who are, we'd love to see you at Conference!
ALDC
ALDC is a membership organisation providing advice, resources and training for Liberal Democrat councillors, active campaigners and anyone who wants to see more Lib Dems elected in local government.
Membership is super useful for any role you may have in campaigns, on the council or in your local party structure.
Bute Energy
Bute Energy is driving the shift to clean energy in Wales with a family of onshore wind energy parks.
We’re creating jobs, supporting economic growth, and investing £800 million in community grants.
Our bold approach to tackling the climate crisis aims to deliver green energy by 2030, leaving a lasting legacy for public good.
Tenovus Cancer Care
Tenovus Cancer Care is a Wales-based charity giving help, hope, and a voice to everyone affected by cancer.
Living with cancer can be worrying and stressful. We can help. We offer information, advice, and specialist support to people living with cancer, and their loved ones.
We believe it is time to provide fairer and faster cancer services. Our manifesto - available on our stand - identifies what needs to happen over the next term of the Senedd to ensure that future.
Tai Pawb
Wales has a housing emergency - record numbers of people in temporary accommodation, social housing waiting lists and a lack of suitable homes. Since 2019, the Back the Bill coalition led by Tai Pawb, Shelter Cymru and the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru has campaigned for incorporation of the UN right to adequate housing in Wales. Pop along for a timely chat about how a rights-based approach to housing can transform lives in Wales.
Optometry Wales
Optometry Wales is the umbrella professional body for all community optometrists, dispensing opticians and optometric practices in Wales, with our main function as representation of the profession at all levels in Wales. Optometry Wales negotiates on behalf of the Regional Optical Committees in Wales in respect of national NHS services provided by optometry in primary care.
PatientsCann UK
PatientsCann UK is the leading medical cannabis patient organisation in the UK, dedicated to supporting and empowering patients through advocacy, education, and community engagement. The organisation works to raise awareness of medical cannabis, promote patient rights, and provide valuable resources for patients navigating the medical cannabis landscape. PatientsCann UK organises nationwide events, including the Medical Cannabis Awareness Campaign Roadshow, and offers sign-posting services to connect patients with essential legal and medical support.
National Liberal Club
Founded in 1882, the National Liberal Club, located in the heart of Whitehall, is a Private Members Club with a socially diverse membership and a venue for liberal debate and discussion. We hold a range of political events that cover UK politics, contemporary political discussion, international politics and political history.
Wales for Europe
Wales for Europe is an independent, cross party and non-party political, collaborative grassroots organisation that believes Wales and the United Kingdom to be inextricably European by virtue of geography, shared history, culture, trade and values.
We believe that continued close cooperation with the European Union, its member states and other European organisations is in the best interests of the continued prosperity of the whole geographical continent of Europe.
Make Votes Matter
Make Votes Matter is a single-issue, cross-party campaign for Proportional Representation in the House of Commons. We encourage all parties, candidates and MPs to support replacing First Past The Post with a form of PR. The work of the movement is driven by volunteer activists and a small staff team.