TACKLING INEQUALITY IN WALES

Plaid Cymru has published a ‘Cost of Inequality’ plan that would help people struggling to pay bills over winter.  

The five proposals are “tangible solutions” that would address the growing challenges faced by people over winter.

Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd and party spokesperson for social justice Sioned Williams said that the Labour government in Wales should be doing more to “support those in need”.

Ms Williams said that Wales possessed powers to take direct action at little additional cost to help families struggling to make ends meet. She suggested the Labour administration was not acting with the “urgency and seriousness” the crisis deserved and said they seemed more content to “settle for crumbs” from London.

Outlining the proposals, the Plaid Cymru MS said that Plaid Cymru would continue to fight for the best interests of Wales’ communities over winter.

The five proposals include:

1. Implementing the new Warm Homes Programme at once to tackle fuel poverty.
2. Pilot free bus travel for under 16s
3. Extend free school meals to secondary school pupils in households receiving Universal Credit
4. Begin creating a Welsh Benefits System
5. Winter rent freeze and eviction moratorium

Plaid Cymru spokesperson for social justice, Sioned Williams MS said,

"The cost of inequality crisis facing households this winter is devastating. The price of food and fuel has left families struggling to make ends meet. Energy bills are at an all time high. Rent and mortgage payments are continuing to rise. People are going out with basic essentials.

"It's not just unfair, it's unconscionable.

“Plaid Cymru is proud of the steps we have already taken to put more money into people’s pockets and help household budgets go further – including helping to deliver free school meals to primary school children, securing additional free childcare, and uplifting the EMA from £30 to £40.

“But there’s more the Labour Government can and must do to support those in need.

“This includes implementing the Warm Homes Programme urgently to combat fuel poverty, supporting local authorities to pilot free bus travel for young people, extending free school meals to more students, and working towards a Welsh Benefits System that is fair and efficient.

“Furthermore, the government must take immediate action to address the housing crisis by announcing a winter rent freeze and reintroducing an eviction moratorium for private renters. Affordable and sustainable housing is essential to mitigate the worst of the cost of inequality crisis.

"These are all tangible solutions that will directly address the pressing challenges faced by our communities.

“Labour must step up, use the powers Wales has and tackle the crisis with the urgency and seriousness it deserves - rather than settle for crumbs from the Conservatives in London.

"Plaid Cymru will continue to fight for the best interests of our communities during what will be a difficult winter.

LEARNING FROM SMALL NATIONS

Plaid Cymru Shadow Education Minister and Senedd Election candidate for Arfon, Siân Gwenllian, has set out how a Plaid Cymru government would work towards providing free school meals for children in Wales, helping to close the attainment gap and tackle child poverty.

Figures from the Child Poverty Action Group show that around 70,000 children in Wales living below the UK poverty line are currently not eligible for free school meals.

 

Siân Gwenllian said that the policy would focus on supporting Welsh farmers and businesses through boosting local procurement, and that the rollout should begin by extending free school meals eligibility to primary children from households in receipt of Universal Credit. Every child in primary school would receive free school meals before the end of a Plaid Cymru first term in government.

 

Siân Gwenllian said:

 

“The attainment gap poses a real challenge in Wales. A Plaid Cymru government would start the important work of closing this gap expanding free school meals provision, starting with extending eligibility to all primary children from households in receipt of Universal Credit.

 

“By the end of the first term of a Plaid government, we would extend the eligibility even more by offering free school meals to all primary pupils, going further than any Labour government ever has.

 

“With almost one in three children in Wales living in poverty and the last Labour Government having scrapped their target of eradicating child poverty by 2020, a Plaid Cymru government would focus on addressing this failure. 

 

“Wales can learn from other small nations such as Finland and Sweden who place an emphasis on Free School Meals as an investment in effective learning and children’s early development. 

 

“Plaid Cymru’s free school meals plan would also benefit wider society, placing a focus on supporting Welsh farmers and businesses through boosting local procurement, and promoting the benefits of nutritious, home-grown produce in terms of health, the economy and the environment.”

- ENDS -

7 REASONS

1. We will launch the biggest public house building programme for fifty years. We will create 50,000 public homes over the next five years, including 30,000 social houses, 5,000 homes with fair rent, and 15,000 genuinely affordable homes to buy. These will include some of the 26,000 empty homes, and empty flats above shops, across Wales that will be brought back into use.

 

2. We will create a £6bn Green Economic Stimulus which, together with our investments in healthcare, education, and the local economy, will generate up to 60,000 jobs over the five-year term. This programme of investment will support Wales’ ongoing economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and will reabsorb workers who have lost employment due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It will entail  investing in projects that will lay the foundations of a new resilient Wales, including expanding and electrifying the rail network, developing a sustainable Welsh food and farming system, and investing in decarbonisation.

 

3. We will extend Free School Meals to all primary school children by the end of our first term, beginning with all children in families who receive Universal Credit. These scheme will emphasise the development of local supply chains - supporting local farmers and local businesses, promoting sustainability, and children will learn where their food comes from and develop the habit of eating nutritious, locally produced food early in life.

 

4. We will have a five-year plan to recruit and educate an additional 4,000 nurses, 1,000 doctors, and 1,000 allied healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Our workforce strategies will look to educate healthcare students in a way that provides the consultants and specialists we will need in twenty years.

 

5. We will provide good quality and safe green space within a five-minute walk of all Welsh households. The pandemic has highlighted more than ever the importance and value of access to green spaces – we will use the planning system to make natural green spaces available in people’s communities as a basic right, a necessity for our physical and mental health as well as for nature’s recovery.

 

6. We will reform council tax to make it fairer and more progressive, cutting the average household bill. We will undertake a revaluation to ensure that that council tax is more proportional to the value of properties - a more proportional council tax will narrow the gap in property wealth between owners of high and low value properties. We would expect that 20 per cent of households in the bottom fifth of income distribution will see their council tax bills fall by more than £200.

 

7. Plaid Cymru is the only party in the Senedd that has committed to an independence referendum. We believe that Westminster isn’t working for Wales, that we aren’t properly represented nor heard, and that Wales should be an independent nation that governs itself. Devolution can only take us so far, as demonstrated by the pandemic – with our own treasury, Wales could have started a Furlough scheme sooner, locked down sooner, and driven down cases sooner.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS

Free schools meals are failing to reach many of those who need them most in Wales. The Child Poverty Action Group found that half of children in poverty in Wales are missing out on free school meals – over 70,000 children. The Labour Welsh Government’s own review into Child Poverty (obtained by Plaid Cymru through an FOI) has actually come to the same conclusion. 

Labour say there’s no cash – but we know that’s not true. We can expand the eligibility by using unallocated funding in next year’s draft budget. The calculations have already been done by the Labour Government in Wales themselves. The cost of expanding free school meals to all children in families in receipt of Universal Credit would be between £33 – 101 million. There is almost £689 million unallocated cash in the draft budget for next year. 

So there is a way, what’s lacking is the political will and the imagination. The benefits of a free school meal are about more than just stopping a child go hungry – a regular, nutritious meal can improve a child’s performance at school, and their health overall, and thereby offset some of the injustices and inequalities caused by poverty.

A compassionate government would work to ensure that no child goes to school hungry or to bed cold, and to that end, a Plaid Cymru Government will make sure that none of these children go hungry. We can but hope that the Labour Government sees sense and rights this wrong before it’s too late.