LABOUR FAILS TO RECOGNISE THE UNIQUE COSTS FACING WELSH HOUSEHOLDS AND BUSINESSES

Liz Saville Roberts MP has urged the UK Government to implement measures that would target higher costs of living for people in Wales.

On Thursday 21st May, Plaid Cymru Westminster Group leader, Liz Saville Roberts MP, said that while the UK Government’s cost-of-living measures announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves are welcome, they do not adequately consider the higher costs faced by Welsh households which require targeted intervention.

In a statement to the House of Commons, the UK Government unveiled a series of measures in response to higher costs facing households and businesses as a result of the war in Iran.

These measures included: extending the fuel duty cut; foreign branch profit tax changes; suspending tariffs on some supermarket foods; a Great British Summer Savings scheme to temporarily cut the rate of VAT on some attractions; and free bus travel across England for children in August.

Ms. Saville Roberts referenced the “structural inequality” in energy costs affecting households in the north of Wales, and called on the UK Government to improve heating costs for households through “long-term measures”.

Responding in the House of Commons, Liz Saville Roberts MP said:

“People are very aware that President Trump’s war with Iran is worsening the cost of living.

“But there are measures within the gift of the government - long-term measures – which could improve heating costs for households.

“In north Wales and Merseyside we pay the equivalent of £255 a year on standing charges – that compares with £160 for London.

“When will she be addressing this structural inequality in heating costs?”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, answered:

“In the Budget last year I reduced energy bills by £150 and just a few weeks ago I put in additional money to help with the cost of heating oil.

The issue around standing charges and those allocations is one for DESNZ, but I will pass on her concerns to the relevant minister.”

 

Speaking after the debate, Ms. Saville Roberts added:

“While support announced by the UK Government is welcome, the Chancellor has not alleviated my concerns that the scale of challenges facing people in Wales is not being fully recognised – including our sky-high heating costs.

“It’s not just higher standing charges either - we also have the oldest housing stock in the UK, and a high proportion of off-grid housing that fall outside the scope of the energy price cap.

“So while Welsh families will certainly benefit from the fuel duty cut extension, and the temporary VAT cut on summer holiday attractions – this package fails to recognise the unique costs facing Welsh households and businesses. Wales requires a serious, dedicated response.

“From ending unfair standing charges, increasing support for those on heating oil and LPG, tackling exploitation by energy companies, and reducing bills by fully breaking the link between electricity and gas prices – Plaid Cymru call on the UK Government to include targeted measures that will make a real difference to communities across Wales.” 

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A NEW LAW FOR BOTCHED BREXIT

Plaid Cymru proposes new law that would undo botched Brexit damage

Wales must reset its relationship with Europe to repair the damage done to the economy caused by Brexit, Plaid Cymru has said.

Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Justice and European Affairs Adam Price MS said that a Plaid Cymru Government would introduce a new act to enable Welsh law to be aligned as closely and quickly as possible with essential European standards when it is in Wales’ best interests.

Mr Price said a new European Alignment Act could help reset the relationship between Wales and Europe to protect the economy at a time of growing global instability. 31st January 2025 will mark five years since the UK formally left the European Union.

According to the Economic Cost of Brexit project, the average person in the UK is now £2,000 worse off as a result of Brexit, amplifying the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. The type of Brexit taken by the last government has cost the Welsh economy up to £4 billion.

Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Justice and European Affairs Adam Price MS said,

“Five years on, there can be no doubting the extent of the damage that Brexit done to Wales and the wider UK.

“The form of hard Brexit pursued by the last UK Government has cost the Welsh economy up to £4 billion. Brexit has reduced the value of Welsh exports by up to £1.1 billion. Post-Brexit trade deals have hurt Welsh farmers, fishers and other producers across many key sectors.  £1 billion has been lost to Wales in the form of European structural and rural development funding.

“Plaid Cymru believe that returning to the single market and customs union as soon as possible would be the best way to begin to undo this economic damage. Under Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Labour are disappointingly resolute in refusing to acknowledge this starkest of economic realities.

“We need an urgent reset in our relationship with the EU, including securing opportunities for young people in Wales to travel, work and study in Europe, and vice versa.

“It is for this reason that I, and Plaid Cymru, are proposing the new European Alignment Act. Such an Act would restore powers we should never have given up and would enable Welsh law to be aligned as closely and quickly as possible with essential European standards when it is in Wales’ best interests.”

“Wales needs to stick as close as we can to our European friends and allies and remain alive to changes in European politics and policy to protect our communities in an ever more insecure and uncertain world.”

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A PEOPLE’S PLAN

Plaid launches radical “People’s Plan” to tackle cost of living as Tories have “no mandate, no credibility and no legitimacy”

Slashing energy prices, freezing rents and cheaper public transport are at the heart of Plaid Cymru’s plan to protect the most vulnerable from the worst excesses of the cost-of-living crisis, Adam Price will say on Friday.

Speaking ahead of Conference and in light of Prime Minister Liz Truss's resignation statement on Thursday afternoon, Adam Price said:

“The Conservative UK government contempt for democracy, their fratricidal scheming, their sacrifice of everything and everyone on the altar of their own greed and personal ambition has culminated in the shortest premiership in the history of UK Prime Ministers.

“The first and hopefully last act of the next Conservative Prime Minister has to be to call a General Election. They have no mandate, no credibility and no legitimacy left. The Tories face A wipe-out at the next election in Wales. The choice we face is between getting rid of them for a few years with a UK Labour government or getting rid of them forever with independence.”

Turning to Plaid Cymru’s practical solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, Mr Price will set out the “socially just and instantly deliverable” People’s Plan - a progressive set of measures aimed at targeting help where it is needed the most. Measures include:

• Cancelling the October price hike, restoring last winter’s significantly lower price cap of £1,277 a year, and extending the price cap beyond the six-month limit for households and businesses.
• Provide an immediate uplift of £25 to Universal Credit and commit to uprating all benefits in line with inflation from April next year.
• Introducing a rent freeze in the private rental sector and a ban on evictions this winter as a first step to a system of rent control.
• Freezing rail fares for 2023, with more off-peak tickets sold at half-price, and capping bus fares at £2.
• Expanding the universal school meals policy to all secondary school pupils, starting with all those children whose families receive Universal Credit.
• Providing fair pay in the public sector.

 Price will also criticise the Labour Welsh Government’s refusal to engage in the debate surrounding the progressive use of income tax as a way of properly rewarding public sector workers and will invite the Welsh Government to work with Plaid Cymru to this end.

Speaking ahead of the Annual Conference, Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said:

“The Conservative UK government's contempt for democracy, their fratricidal scheming, their sacrifice of everything and everyone on the altar of their own greed and personal ambition has culminated in the shortest premiership in the history of UK Prime Ministers.

"The first and hopefully last act of the next Conservative Prime Minister has to be to call a General Election. They have no mandate, no credibility and no legitimacy left.

"The Tories face wipe-out at the next election in Wales. The choice we face is between getting rid of them for a few years with a UK Labour government or getting rid of them forever with independence.”

In a withering attack on the chaos which has engulfed Westminster in recent weeks, Adam Price MS is expected to tell delegates in Llandudno:

“Enough is enough, because the fall out of decisions taken by Number 10 – the office of budget irresponsibility – goes beyond the money markets.

"Make no mistake, the cuts are coming – ripping through not trickling down into our public services.

"If the Welsh Way is to mean anything it must involve made in Wales solutions too.

"Too frequently and inexcusably - ministers here have sought the solace of relative political safety by criticising others rather than affecting change themselves.

"Where has Labour’s radicalism gone? We know we won’t find it with Keir Starmer but we hoped to find it closer to home.

"Where is their signature of solidarity in these most urgent of times?

"Make no mistake, this is an emergency - the blue lights are flashing, and we can be the first responders. The first with ideas, the first with solutions, the first to demand action.

"Our ‘People’s Plan’ is both socially just and immediately deliverable.

"It makes public transport more affordable, the pay packet go further, housing provision fairer, and tax rates more progressive.

In a direct appeal to the Labour Welsh Government, Adam Price is expected to say:

“I make this offer to the Labour Welsh Government.

"Work with us and we will work with you – phase two of our Cooperation Agreement can be the ‘People’s Plan’ – if we are all for Cymru and want a Cymru for all let us find common ground for the common good – people before politics, nation before party.

"The Tories won’t but we can. Though not enough, we have the tools to make a difference – there is a way – all we need is the will.”

You can read The People's Plan here.