Plaid Cymru launch ‘radical’ People’s Plan they say will help tackle cost-of-living crisis

A “radical” People’s Plan they say will help tackle the cost-of-living crisis has been launched by Plaid Cymru.

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

Speaking today ahead of the Plaid Cymru conference, Adam Price will say that the plan is a response to a Conservative UK Government which has “no mandate, no credibility and no legitimacy”.

He 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.

“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,” he will say.

“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 solutions to the cost-of-living crisis, Mr Price will set out what he will call a “socially just and instantly deliverable” People’s Plan – a progressive set of measures aimed at targeting help where it is needed the most.

People’s Plan

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. 
• Providing 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.

‘Cuts are coming’

Adam Price MS is expected to tell delegates in Llandudno: “Enough is enough, because the fallout 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.”

Her will also appeal to the Welsh Government, saying: “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.”