Welsh Lib Dems launch manifesto in Cardiff Bay

Emily Price

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have launched their general election manifesto with investment in care, agriculture, tackling sewage and insulating homes key to the Party’s pledges.

The fully costed manifesto, published today (June 24) promises to deliver £760 million extra per year in funding for public services in Wales – significantly higher than the Conservatives and Labour.

The Welsh Lib Dems say the funding will be paid for by cancelling tax breaks for big banks and by reforming capital gains tax – but they have ruled out any tax rises for working people.

At the heart of the document is a £470 million rescue package for the NHS pledging an extra £260 million a year by 2028-29 in additional spending.

The Lib Dems say its key focus is on fixing social care with a separate £210 million allocated to the sector which will help enable people to be released from hospital and relieve pressure on the NHS whilst giving a fair deal to family carers.

Key pledges in the document include:

• Boosting the Carer’s Minimum Wage.
• Lifting the Carer’s Allowance/Carer Support Payment by £1,040 a year and removing the earnings cliff-edge.
• Establishing world-class mental health services meaning every school pupil has fast access to a mental health counsellor, new mental health staff working alongside GPs and A&Es, and extra help for businesses, backed by increasing taxes on social media companies.
• Delivering £50m more a year for Welsh agriculture.
• Generating an extra £500 million in capital funding for Wales to build new local health facilities, tackle the housing emergency, end the scandal of crumbling concrete in public buildings, and stopping sewage dumping.
• Making homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme, starting with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes.
• Delivering £500,000 per year in extra funding for Natural Resources Wales to spend on the enforcement and monitoring of sewage pollution in Welsh waterways.

Fair deal

Launching the manifesto in Cardiff Bay, Welsh Lib Dem Leader Jane Dodds said: “Every vote for the Welsh Liberal Democrats at this election is a vote to elect a strong local champion focused on getting you fast access to GPs and dentists and will give our nation’s carers a fair deal.

“We will stop sewage being dumped in our rivers, protect our children’s mental health, and deliver warm homes that insulate you from the cost-of-living crisis.

“Our vision is of a better Wales where we work in partnership across our four nations, of restoring people’s faith in public service by cleaning up our scandal-ridden politics and in fixing our broken relationship with Europe.

“Like the Conservatives, Welsh Labour have let communities down, our NHS outcomes are some of the worst in the country and they have all but abandoned rural Wales.

“Both large parties also refuse to scrap the two-child benefit cap, a cruel policy that is helping to keep the 29% of children in Wales living in poverty trapped there.

“Hope and change are just around the corner, you only need to vote for them. Back the Welsh Liberal Democrats for a fair deal for you, your family, and for Wales.”