Will the devastating legacy of Reform UK's Dan Thomas follow him to the valleys?
Dan Thomas, first place candidate for Reform UK in Casnewydd Islwyn and the party’s leader in Wales, led an outsourcing campaign that cost a London borough hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds.
Hello and welcome to The Valleys Lead.
Dan Thomas is the first place candidate for Reform UK in Casnewydd Islwyn, in the south Wales valleys, and the party’s leader in Wales. A new report from Unison says that the leader’s outsourcing track record in Barnet, where he served on the council for 19 years, should be a warning for the south Wales valleys, and the rest of Wales. We spoke with a John Burgess, of Barnet Unison, and other candidates in the Casnewydd Islwyn constituency to find out if we should be concerned that the same will happen here.
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The Valleys Briefing
(A little round-up of some stories in brief from our valleys.)
In Deri, a village in Caerphilly, a church will be converted into two homes. The church closed in early 2023 due to “being surplus to requirements as a result of a declining congregation.” No objections were raised to the proposals to the council during a recent public consultation period. Is this one solution to the housing crisis? We’d love to hear what you think.
This is a story we must give mention to as so many in the valleys are talking about it. South Wales Police Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, and Bridgend have issued a statement that they received a report of a dog - Zak, a terrier - being stolen from its owner in Mountain Ash. The owner is reportedly a vulnerable adult. The dog was found dead the next day. There was widespread community concern following the news of Zak’s disappearance and death, with many criticising initial response time. #Justice4Zak started trending, with residents demanding accountability.
Tourism brought in more than £156 million towards the local economy in Merthyr Tydfil, new figures show. 1.31 million visitors came to Merthyr Tydfil in 2024. The economic impact of tourism in the town has been rising post-pandemic, bouncing back from the pandemic more effectively than the majority of the other 21 local authorities in Wales. Merthyr Tydfil Council is currently developing a destination management plan which is the third iteration of a dedicated tourism strategy for Merthyr Tydfil.
The devastating “legacy” of Dan Thomas in Barnet. Will it be the same in the valleys?
A new report from Unison reveals how Dan Thomas, first place candidate for Reform UK in Casnewydd Islwyn and the party’s leader in Wales, left a London council spending “years dismantling” a mess of mass outsourcing of public services.
Thomas was a Conservative councillor in Barnet from 2006 to 2025, serving as leader of the council from 2019 to 2022.
Under his leadership, alongside others, core services were outsourced, costs rose sharply, scrutiny was weakened, and hundreds lost their jobs.
Before outsourcing commenced, Thomas’s cabinet “spent a fortune on consultants to advise them on what type of outsourcing they should do,” John Burgess, of Unison’s Barnet Branch, who witnessed every step of Thomas’s action in the council, told The Valleys Lead. “They spent millions on consultants.”
Unison, and the community “tried everything to convince” Thomas, and “submitted hundreds of reports” urging Thomas not to “go down this road.”
“But he’s very ideological, and arrogant,” Burgess said. “Once he’s into it, he’s into it. You can’t say anything.”
In 2013, with the promise of “saving money,” Barnet signed two ten-year contracts with Capita worth about £500 million to the company.
“The contracts covered HR, finance, payroll, council tax, IT, building control, public health, planning, environmental health, call handling, highways, and regeneration,” Burgess said.
Burgess distinctly remembers dealing with “mass redundancies on a scale you can’t imagine.” The report revealed that 790 jobs were transferred into the private sector.
The contracts promised £165 million in savings, but by 2022, Barnet’s incoming Labour leadership said the council had paid £229 million more than originally planned.
Pensions administration, which had been outsourced, became so poor that Barnet was the first local authority fined by the Pensions Regulator.
“And Thomas couldn’t accept that it was a failure,” Burgess said.
