GROWING OUR SMALL BUSINESSES

A Plaid Cymru government will involve the private sector and its representative bodies in providing business support and advice aimed at small businesses (less than 10 employees) by strengthening the current Business Wales network. Plaid Cymru will also pass a Regulatory Reform Act to lower the bureaucratic burden on business.

Plaid will increase business rate relief so that more than 70,000 small and medium companies will pay no business rates at all. Any firm with a rateable value of less than £10,000 per year will pay no business rates and a Plaid government will introduce a tapered relief for another 20,000 firms whose rateable value is between £10,000 and £20,000. In order to enourage new startups Plaid will not charge any business rates due for the first year of operation.

The Party of Wales will review business rates every three years, so that they are kept up-to-date, and investigate the impact of premises investment so that businesses are not penalised for improvements that they make. We will subject small and large businesses to different multipliers as is the case in Scotland and England and will index rates to CPI not RPI.

Additionally targeted business rate reliefs will be offered for larger companies that agree to meet certain criteria on corporate social responsibility – including opportunities for local suppliers, the Welsh Living Wage, the minimisation of waste and the use of renewable energy. Businesses of all sizes that meet the criteria will be entitled to display a kitemark as responsible Welsh businesses.

Plaid Cymru in government will act immediately to set up a new fund to enable local authorities and community groups to offer two hours free car parking in towns throughout Wales, providing a vital boost to town centre regeneration across all of Wales. 

We will support social innovation, social enterprise, employee and consumer co-ops. We will establish a co-operative challenge fund to provide financial support for feasibility and market studies and early stage finance for groups exploring the option of establishing cooperatives. Plaid Cymru will support the establishment of a social business school to develop the skills of social entrepreneurs, and a social innovation park to incubate new ideas.

IT’S BROKE – TIME TO FIX IT!

Rail fares have risen (1.1%) today; something that will directly impact on regular and occasional rail travellers, at a time when they can least afford it. 

At present rail fare increases are determined with a calculation based on RPI (retail price index) – a system that has attracted repeated criticism from respected economists and rail travellers alike. 

Passengers and commuters should not be hit in the pocket because the Government is intent on clinging onto a broken and outdated system.

For 2016 the rail fare rise was relatively small as a result of low inflation but at some stage inflation will return to normal, and the RPI based rail fare calculator will hit rail passengers hard as they are exposed to the substantial annual increases. 

A much fairer way of calculating fares would be to use the CPI (consumer prices index) that is consistently lower than RPI. The UK Westminster Government already uses CPI to calculate its liabilities such as social security.

Plaid Cymru believes in the public ownership of railways, and the full transfer of powers over railways, including the transfer of full funding for railway infrastructure, to Wales. A Plaid Government would work to devolve Network Rail and set up a not-for-dividend company in which profits are reinvested into better services rather than used to pay dividends. 

Our priority in Wales must be to deliver higher standards and lower journey times for passengers and commuters in all corners of Wales and invest profits to improve services.

THE RIGHT CHOICE?

The sensible choice would be for the Welsh Government to follow Scottish example of freezing off-peak prices, as RPI inflation figures (3.1% in the year to July) threaten another 4.1% increase from January 2014 across Wales. It is worth noting that Trade union leaders and transport experts have called on the Government to follow Scotland’s lead and freeze or limit rises in train fares for passengers.  The Welsh Government’s default position is that fares should only rise by 1% above the July inflation figure. The problem is that while the Labour in Wales administration could choose to freeze or limit the fares increase (this deal has been made every year since 2001 for the Wales and the Borders franchise) this is not set in stone.

A choice: Not for profit or Profit before people?

The Western Mail’s sources revealed yesterday that although Scotland is freezing the cost of off-peak journeys. There is a distinct possibility that hard-pressed Welsh commuters may well end up having to face another 4.1% increase in January 2014, this would be on top of the 4% rise at the start of this year (2013).  In Scotland, the cost peak-rail travel will rise with inflation at 3.1% and the freeze in off-peak travel will cover about 40% of rail journeys. A 4.1% increase in rail fares would increase the cost of an annual commuter route season ticket between Pontypridd and Cardiff from £880 to £916 and between Aberdare and Cardiff from £1,040 to around £1,082.

The current franchise was awarded to Arriva Trains Wales in 2003 and runs for 15 years, and is due to end in 2018. There have been many persistent calls for the rail franchise to be run as a not-for-profit operation – with profits being feed back into the system, rather than vanishing to pay shareholders dividends. The Welsh Government has been considering this option for when the deal ends. Arriva Trains Wales is the only train firm covered by the Welsh Government’s transport remit. Any longer-distance services e.g. Swansea or Cardiff to Paddington, are currently operated by First Great Western, who have their fares regulated by the UK Government Department for Transport. They have stated that rail fares on the routes it controls would increase by an average of 4.1% from January 2013.

To make matters worse the announced rise in rail fares will come take place against a backdrop of squeezed incomes, with average earnings increasing by just 1% and many experiencing pay freezes. There have been calls for the ending the annual inflation-plus fares rise, with them being replaced by a new formula, RPI minus 1% from 2015.  The rail fare rises which will arrive in January’s rise will be the sixth time in seven years that rail fares have outstripped wages. It has been calculated that between 2008 and next January rail fares will have risen some 40%, compared with a 15% increase in average earnings.

It should also be noted that the cost of some season tickets may rise by 9% as some routes are not subject to regulation under franchise agreements. All these rail fare increases will take place against projections of a 2.4% increase in average earnings next year. The TUC has suggested that since the railways were privatised, they have cost taxpayers about £1.2 billion pounds a year and this with what has been described as “minimal” investment in trains and stations.  

The Department for Transport continues to insist that the UK Westminster Government is investing record amounts in the railways to help deliver economic growth and boost passenger capacity. Additionally the Association of Train Operating Companies has also insisted that only a small proportion of income goes on profits, with most going on staff costs and investment. They also say that railway companies only make modest profits with 3p from every pound earned going towards profit, 17p goes towards staff costs, and 48p goes towards maintaining and improving infrastructure (including track and signalling).

At the end of the day, this is good news for rail operators and shareholders but bad news for hard-pressed long suffering rail commuters who are having to hand over even more of their pay packets for poor-quality services. We are where we are because regulated fares, including peak-time journeys, have been set at RPI inflation plus 1% since 2004 because successive Governments (both Labour and Con Dem) have been trying to shift the burden of paying for the railways from taxpayers to rail passengers.

It is Somewhat ironic that the persistent attempts of successive Westminster governments to wash their collective hands of their responsibilities for rail transport infrastructure come at a time when annual passenger journey numbers have increased from 750 million to 1.5 billion. The day that the rail franchise in our country is run on a not for profit basis, with profits being reinvested into the business, cannot come soon enough.