We asked the key parties for their solutions to address the challenges facing Wales. Here’s how Plaid Cymru answered our questions.
Reinvigorating Wales’ Economy
Question: How do you plan to reinvigorate Wales’ economy? What steps will you take to boost productivity, increase living standards, and reduce regional inequalities?
Answer: Plaid Cymru will set new targets for the Welsh economy so that we can better understand the impact of policy decisions and investment choices through their outcomes.
We propose an Economic Fairness Bill that will ensure that Wales is treated fairly in investment decisions at Westminster, and introduce the same here in Wales to make sure that all parts of the country benefit from Welsh Government spending, and reduce regional inequalities.
Plaid Cymru will establish a National Development Agency for Wales with a forward-thinking approach that will meet the economic challenges of the coming decades, understanding Wales’s needs and strengths and agile enough to respond to changing business landscapes, and develop a community bank providing services to customers in communities where private banks have left the market.
We want to develop economic conditions in which Wales develops its own range of locally owned medium sized companies, further developing Welsh supply chains and investment, retaining value within the Welsh economy and leading to improved employment in high quality, higher paying jobs.
We believe that Wales would be better served by re-joining the European Single Market as soon as practical and then re-joining the European Union at an appropriate point in time.
Wales’ Net Zero Journey and the Economy
Question: How will your party ensure that the opportunities offered by Wales’ net zero journey are felt in Wales’ economy, in its broadest sense?
Answer: Plaid Cymru will develop a Welsh Green New Deal that will create rewarding, meaningful and fair work in the emerging green and net-zero sector, and includes re-skilling and supporting Welsh employees and apprentices into these sectors, meeting the identified need associated with demographic change in the manufacturing workforce and the skills shortages.
In Port Talbot, future options for greening steel production, including through replacing coal with green hydrogen, should be developed.
We support a long-term plan for retrofitting existing properties that would make them more energy efficient, thereby reducing costs and carbon emissions.
This will require government support, particularly while households are in such economically challenging circumstances, and requires investment and commitment to developing a skilled workforce capable of delivering this programme of works across the country.
We see this as an opportunity to cut carbon emissions and energy costs while providing local employment opportunities.
As part of the move towards net-zero, we will create a Just Transition Commission to ensure that the move to become climate neutral recognises the challenges for real people in achieving this, including skills development, rural industries, social inclusion and young people amongst other topics.
Rebalancing the Economy and Improving Living Standards:
Question: How will you seek to rebalance the Welsh economy to lift people out of poverty and improve living standards for low-and-middle income households?
Answer: In this UK General Election, Plaid Cymru are focusing on reducing child poverty, pledging a £20 per week increase in Child Benefit per child and ending the two-child cap and benefit cap introduced by the Conservatives, and which Labour have not pledged to scrap.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Child Poverty Action Group estimate that this will reduce child poverty in Wales by more than a third, as well as supporting more than 330,000 families in Wales with the cost-of-living crisis.
We also support an Essentials Guarantee within Universal Credit so that nobody’s income falls below an acceptable threshold of £120 per week for a single adult and £200 for a couple.
In the longer-term, the development of the Welsh economy involves investment in skills and supply chains that benefit all parts of the country, reducing regional inequalities and providing better-paid employment which retains economic value within Wales.
In addition to increasing wages for work, we also need to reduce un-necessary costs for families. For example, there is no reason why households in Wales, which produces more energy than it uses, have higher standing charges than in England, and we would support a Social Tariff for Energy.
Strengthening Wales’ Media Ecosystem:
Question: If in power, what actions will you take to strengthen our media ecosystem – ensuring that it is fit for purpose in supporting democratic engagement across the nation?
Answer: Plaid Cymru support the devolution of broadcasting powers to Wales, including the power to regulate, oversee and secure accountability for broadcasting and communications within Wales.
As part of the recent Cooperation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, we commissioned an expert panel that examined the creation of a shadow Broadcasting and Communications Authority for Wales.
Though the Cooperation Agreement has now ended, we remain committed to supporting this being taken forward. This body will address our concerns about the current fragility in the media and attacks on its independence, and will also support the use of the Welsh language, particularly in digital and encourage media plurality.
Reinvigorating Wales’ Democracy:
Question: How will your party look to reinvigorate Wales’ democracy, overcoming its current democratic malaise?
Answer: An independent Wales will put all of Wales’s decision-making levers in our hands and mean that every vote in Wales counts towards electing our government, and giving people real reason to vote in our elections.
In the meantime, we look forward to the increase of the number of representatives in the Senedd in the 2026 election, with a proportional representation electoral system which will put all Members of the Senedd on the same footing in representing an electoral area and fewer wasted votes.
In the review of the 2026 election, we will again support the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote system for the Senedd, an election method that will further reduce the number of votes which aren’t used to elect a Member of the Senedd, and provide greater choice for electors to vote for both an individual and a party.
We would end the voter suppression at UK-led elections recently introduced through the requirement to show ID at polling stations, and instead focus efforts on ensuring that all potential eligible voters are on the electoral roll.
Plaid Cymru will make it a offence for an elected politician or a candidate to intentionally mislead by making a statement known to be false or deceptive.
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