IN NEED OF A RENEWABLES REVOLUTION

Wales is home to vast natural wealth but for too long, Westminster has benefited from the exploitation and export of our resources. Plaid Cymru wants to see control over these natural resources and major energy projects devolved from Westminster to the National Assembly so that the people of Wales benefit from them.

That way, we can dramatically increase our renewable energy capacity with a focus on tidal and hydro sources, and protect our communities from damaging Westminster policies such as fracking and over-reliance on fossil fuels. Plaid would also introduce a Climate Change Act for Wales, adopting challenging but achievable greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030 and 2050.

Plaid Cymru believes that communities should be able to benefit more from energy generation. We want to see local people owning and investing in energy projects as has happened in Scotland. We would also look into establishing local power grids and a Wales-wide national energy grid to secure energy transmission around Wales, linking north and south entry points undersea.

Some 85,000 households in Wales fell into fuel poverty between 2011-2014 bringing the total to 450,000. In such an energy-rich nation this is nothing short of a disgrace. Plaid Cymru is committed to a fairer, greener, more prosperous Wales. Our plans would see Welsh resources being put to use in a manner that benefits our communities, our environment and our economy.

SECONDS OUT… ROUND TWO

The view from the back of the hall...

With barely 28 or so days to go until Polling, on what has been a long campaign that started back in the October of 2013, the clock can now be said to be well and truly ticking. One week after the Hustings organised by the Bryn Y Cwm forum, at The Angel, in Abergavenny. 

The second evening Hustings meeting of this campaign took place last evening. The Hustings, which took place at The Priory Centre in Abergavenny, was organised collectively by the Abergavenny Churches.  It was packed out (200+), something that over the years you come to expect from pretty much any Hustings organised in Monmouth constituency.  

Despite some wobbly moments with the microphone (a failing battery – rapidly replaced) it proved an interesting evening. In truth though, in an hour and half, and with 7 candidates or their representatives present, it means that not that many questions get asked or answered, even with strict timekeeping. Whittling down close to 30 pages of policy notes into coherent bite sized chunks is yet another challenge that you face as a candidate.

PLAID OUTLINES A THRIVING FUTURE FOR FARMING

Plaid Cymru’s farming mini-manifesto, launched ahead of the Westminster General Election, outlines how Plaid Cymru wants to work to make sure the Common Agriculture Policy works for Welsh farmers. It also focuses on reducing bureaucracy, ensuring that Rural Development Programme funding is used effectively, and that public procurement better supports Welsh farmers and Welsh jobs.

Llyr Gruffydd AM, Plaid Cymru's Shadow Minister for Sustainable Communities, Energy and Food; said:  

"Plaid Cymru is committed to reducing red tape in order to give the industry the flexibility it needs to respond effectively to these challenging times. We would start by scrapping the six-day standstill rule which has served its purpose.

"We have our sights set on improving services in rural communities. We are committed to delivering Superfast broadband to 100% of Wales to ensure everybody is connected and anyone can do business from home.

"We will also fight to make sure rural Wales is brought into the EU's Rural Fuel Rebate scheme which will deliver a 5p cut in the price of fuel to rural areas whose inhabitants are forced to spend a higher portion of their income on fuel than people in urban areas.

"Plaid Cymru understands our communities and their needs. We are fighting to return the strongest ever group of MPs to the Commons to make sure that those needs are served in Westminster."

MAKE WESTMINSTER WORK FOR WALES

Plaid Cymru is right to clearly state that it would use a hung parliament to push for measures to strengthen the Welsh economy in order to secure a recovery that benefits all the people of Wales. Plaid wants to see a steadier, more responsible rational approach to tackling the deficit that would include a modest increase in government departmental spending and a boost for infrastructure investment.  

Plaid has outlined plans to tackle the UK deficit in a steadier, more responsible manner than the current Westminster government's approach. Plaid refuses to balance the books on the back of the poor. Instead, Plaid want to see a modest increase of 0.5% per year in government departmental spending, starting in 2016-2017. This would lead to a decline in the budget deficit from 4.2% in 2015-2016 to 1.4% in 2019-2020 - a reduction of over 60% that wouldn't come from savage cuts to our vital public services.

An additional 1% of GDP invested across the UK in infrastructure in order to boost the economy and create jobs would grant Wales an extra £950 million each year to spend on our roads, railways and more. In the event of a hung parliament, Plaid Cymru will rightly demand the same deal for Wales as Scotland, in terms of resources and responsibilities. This is vital so we can invest in jobs and generate growth. Quite simply this would mean an additional £1.2 billion a year for our nation - £400 per head for every person in Wales - and is a simple matter of equality. 

Plaid Cymru would also press Westminster to introduce a living wage by 2020. This would not only secure a pay rise for 250,000 Welsh workers, it could also bring about £2.1 billion additional income through tax and save around £1.1 billion in in-work benefits. These proposals would help to bring down the deficit without inflicting more pain on our communities and also shatters the Westminster consensus that there is no alternative to cuts.

IT MAKES SENSE…

Plaid Cymru has called for an additional 1 per cent of GDP to be invested across the UK in infrastructure. This is an additional £19 billion pounds a year on top of the 1.2 per cent (£23 billion pounds) to which all the London based and Westminster focused parties are committed. Research by the IMF has calculated that for every £1 spent on infrastructure some £3's worth of additional economic activity is created. At a time when Wales needs investment, job creation and improvements in its infrastructure, such investment could yield real dividends for our people. The more job creation we can stimulate and the better improvements to our infrastructure, the better the long-term prospects will be for the Welsh economy.

OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND

Once again a UK Westminster government has put the needs of rural Wales last by failing to include Welsh regions in a scheme to help lower fuel bills in rural areas. The application made by the UK Government included seventeen areas in the UK for a 5 pence per litre fuel duty discount, but oddly enough none of the seventeen areas were in Wales.

Plaid Cymru has argued that Wales has some of the most rural areas of the UK, and should qualify for the scheme. Rural Wales has already been very badly hit by numerous decisions taken by both the Westminster Government and Labour in Wales Welsh Government, with decisions being made to cut the EU budget, to reduce CAP payments to Welsh farmers by a quarter of a billion pounds and a failure to support rural businesses.

The decision to exclude rural Wales from the fuel duty discount is just another example of the Westminster parties neglecting to work in Wales’ best interests. Farm incomes fell by 24% last year, and farmers are facing extremely difficult economic conditions. The UK Westminster Government has publically acknowledged that rural areas face added financial pressures, but they have yet again failed to deliver for Wales.The Labour in Wales Welsh Government has also failed to support our rural communities.

The Westminster parties voted to cut the CAP budget on a EU level, and the Labour in Wales Welsh has failed to invest in broadband and mobile connectivity, or step up to help our rural businesses with their business rates. Rural Wales has pretty much been abandoned by the UK Westminster parties, clearly only Plaid Cymru is prepared to step up and fight for Wales’ needs at every opportunity.

GOING FOR A HOME WIN

When spending public money, it’s important to work it very hard and extract every single possible benefit. We need to take a fresh look public sector procurement of goods and services in Wales and ensure that an increasing percentage of our public sector spend is targeted towards local businesses and local suppliers. 

The Welsh public sector spends £4.3 billion pounds every year buying goods and services from the private sector, which supports some 98,000 jobs. This sum is four times larger than what Wales raises in business rates and almost three times as much as corporation tax. At present close to 52% of that is spent in Wales compared to Germany, which spends 99% of its procurement budget within its own borders, and France, which spends 98%. 

When taxpayers’ money is being spent, it is important that every single possible added value be squeezed out of it and it is vital that we spend as much of possible of it as we can to support Welsh businesses.  For every 1% increase in the proportion of money being spent in Wales we could grow 2,000 new jobs. Plaid Cymru plans to add 25% to the current percentage of 52% and create 50,000 new jobs. This would boost local businesses and local suppliers and safeguard and create valuable jobs in the private sector and maximise the value of the public sector procurement spend.