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Peredur Owen Griffiths, who represents Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.
The cost of living crisis will dominate the political agenda – and rightly so – over the coming weeks and months. What was already shaping up to be a crisis, has developed into a burgeoning disaster due to the inaction on the part of a Tory Westminster Government that is either out-of-touch with everyday people or frankly indifferent to their needs.
The rising cost of almost everything from food, to mortgages and to fuel – whether household or vehicle – has prompted a vice-like squeeze on family budgets that has not seen for generations.
To see the Welsh Government statement this week on the cost of living crisis refer to the establishment of ‘heat banks’ – places where people can go to be warm if they can’t afford to heat their homes – is something I didn’t expect to see in 2022.
The scale of the problem has not been over-hyped. This was abundantly clear in the meetings or briefings I have had from a number of organisations working at the sharp end of this crisis.
Citizens Advice Cymru have told me that they have helped more than 3,100 who have already self-disconnected from their energy meters because they have not been able to top them up. Their polling also found that 10% of the people in Wales have £100 or less after paying for essentials and 8% have £0 or less.
In a briefing I received from the office of the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, I was shocked to learn that poverty amongst older people is now rising and that around one in five older people in Wales are living in relative income poverty. With the forecast that things are set to get worse, it does not bear to think what will happen to people who are already struggling.
While the Tories dithered and took part in their naval-gazing leadership contest, the problems facing families escalated over the summer.
The war in Ukraine has often been cited by the Tory Government as a reason for the energy price hikes but that does not bear close scrutiny when you see that we receive 4% of our gas from Russia. This is much less than other European countries who have shielded their citizens from the kind of domestic energy prices rises we have seen in the UK.
Plaid Cymru has called on the Westminster Government to implement a number of measures to protect our people. This includes a windfall tax to slash energy bills to the pre-April levels of £1,277. This reduced price cap should also be extended to small businesses and charities to protect them from the rocketing prices.
In the longer term, we have called for the big five energy companies to be brought into public hands and to radically increase investment in green energy and home insulation as a means of bringing stability to a sector currently mired in chaos.
While Westminster has, deservedly so, attracted much criticism for sleep walking into this social catastrophe, there are a number of things in which the Labour Government of Wales could and should be doing to increase community resilience.
We have called for the freezing of rents and banning of evictions over winter to give tenants better security and help them cope with the rising cost of living. We have also proposed the halving of rail fares and a cap on bus fares to give people more money in their pocket. Where reliable and frequent public transport does not exist, the rural fuel duty should be slashed.
We have also called for the extension of the free school meals policy which Plaid Cymru ushered in as part of the co-operation agreement. We want universal free school meals introduced into secondary schools as well as primary schools. This extension of the universal free school meal policy should cover holidays as well.
To not explore every means of helping people in these extraordinary times would be a dereliction of duty in my opinion. The cost of living crisis should be the top agenda item of every UK Government as we approach what could be a very bleak winter without significant state intervention.
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