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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 has become a full-blown disaster for many local families. An already precarious financial situation was only deepened by the mismanagement of the economy by the Tory Westminster Government.
This was laid bare in a recent document from the Bevan Foundation. Entitled A Snapshot of Poverty in Winter 2023, the study found that debt was a significant problem for many. More than a quarter of people surveyed borrowed money between October 2022 and January 2023, with 13% being in arrears on at least one bill. Furthermore, more than one in ten were also worried about losing their home over the next three months, with mortgage holders becoming increasingly concerned.
Against the backdrop of this, there are record numbers of people being forced onto prepayment meters for their gas and electricity. The reality is that some families will not have been able to afford to heat or even illuminate their homes this winter. When the fat cat energy bosses are taking home big bonuses for increasing profits, it demonstrates how morally bankrupt the UK is. Wales should have the powers to crack down on these bad practices and come down on the side of the ordinary family. The reality is that we are largely powerless and can only appeal to Westminster’s sense of compassion and fair play to do the right thing…which is inevitably something of a futile task.
I have raised the injustice of pre-payment energy meters being forced upon people in the Senedd this year already and will continue to do so. I have also called for the Welsh Government to work closely with the Enforcement Conduct Board who provide independent oversight of bailiffs to ensure fair treatment of those subject to enforcement action in Wales and England. There is little to no regulation in the industry, which allows bad, predatory practice of people in debt to run rampant.
For example, in the Senedd I highlighted the case of a woman who lives in social housing in Newport and receives Universal Credit and PIP. She was subject to a High Court enforcement case on behalf of a utilities creditor. She asked the debt collecting company if she could arrange an instalment payment plan but the company insisted on a visit to see if she had any assets. This meant that in addition to the £75 charge that was added to her debt because of the telephone stage of enforcement, £190 was added to her debt for the visit. Had she not been at home on the first visit, a second visit would have led to the stage 2 High Court Enforcement fee of £495 added on. That is wrong and it has to stop.
When you look at these injustices, coupled with crumbling public services that has caused many groups of workers to strike – industrial action that Plaid Cymru supports wholeheartedly – it is easy to get despondent. There was some positive news however with a new report by pro-Welsh independence thinktank Melin Drafod. Their research suggested that an independent Wales could afford to invest an extra £3 billion a year in public services, such as universal free childcare and public transport. Their discussion paper claimed that Wales’ fiscal position could be improved by around 6-7% of GDP over a period of years through several policy changes that could be implemented by an independent nation.
This paper was by no means a complete answer to the questions posed by the prospect of an independent Wales but it provided yet more discussion on a subject that had little coverage only a few years ago and few people were talking about it. In 2023, more and more people are asking themselves whether it is best to stay within a UK that is showing signs of terminal decline or carve a different future for ourselves that is determined by people living in Wales?
While we deal with the short term, serious problems that have largely been caused by Westminster, it is certainly worth asking the question of how we best protect ourselves from their regressive and uncaring policies in the long-term.
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