Senedd election 2021: Plaid looks at tax options as poverty targeted

Plaid Cymru's leader says his party is currently considering which taxes to raise to pay for some of the policies in their 2021 election manifesto.

Adam Price told BBC Wales: "It's important that we're open and honest with the people of Wales".

Plaid fleshed out plans to end poverty among the oldest and youngest in Wales.

"We certainly will need to raise additional revenue to enable us to do things that we've talked about for so long," said Mr Price.

The party wants to introduce free childcare and a weekly £35 support payment for children, as well as a national health and care service.

Mr Price believes it would allow parents to go back to work, create "up to 3,000" jobs and boost thousands of incomes.

He estimated the cost of the policies to be £1bn and said that extra money would need to be raised to pay for it.

Income tax has been partially devolved to the Welsh Government and the 2021 Senedd election will be the first where parties can campaign to change rates.

While admitting Plaid would need to raise revenue to implement its policies, Mr Price refused to be drawn on whether that would mean a rise in income tax.

'Fair and proportionate'

"We are thinking carefully about that but we need to look at the range of tax powers that we have," he told BBC Wales.

"In the long term we need to have a better balance between taxing income through employment for example, and taxing wealth."

He said that to be truly progressive, the party had to ensure it was also taxing wealth "in a fair and proportionate way."

The Senedd election - Mr Price's first as leader - is due to happen on 6 May.

Plaid Cymru managed to retain the four Westminster seats it won in last year's UK general election and increased its share of the vote in all but one of those seats.

• Plaid vow to lift children out of poverty

• Free childcare 'could help close poverty gap'

• Poverty gap 'major challenge' for schools

Overall, however, in an election overshadowed by Brexit, the party's share of the vote across Wales was down 0.5%.

Next year Plaid Cymru faces a Senedd election which again risks being overshadowed, this time by the coronavirus pandemic.

In the last election to Cardiff Bay in 2016, Plaid Cymru won 12 seats under the previous leader Leanne Wood.

Plaid Cymru's proposals include free childcare

That number later fell to 10 after another former leader, Lord Elis-Thomas, left to become an independent AM then subsequently a deputy minister in the Labour-led government, before Neil McEvoy was expelled from the party.

It meant Plaid Cymru lost its status as the largest opposition party to the Welsh Conservatives.

Mr Price, who became leader in 2018, said the party's "guiding mission" if it formed the next government would be to make Wales an "equal nation and a nation of equals".

The proposals include:

• A Welsh child payment of £35 a week for the poorest families

• Free childcare, which would provide universal access to education and care from 12 months of age

• A national health and care service, providing health and social care free at the point of access and give health and care workers the same terms, conditions and pay scales

While the Welsh Government has had partial income tax varying powers since April 2019, the forthcoming election will be the first in which political parties will be able to make an offer to you that could impact directly on your pay packet.

The Welsh Government has some other tax powers too, so how to balance the overall tax package is obviously something Plaid, and no doubt the other parties, are thinking about.

The coronavirus pandemic has the potential to change the context too. In recent months the NHS and social care has been the focus of attention, but now concerns about jobs and the economy are starting to take centre stage.

Who knows where we'll be in May 2021, but the politicians have to start planning now and gamble on whether you'd rather see a tax cut or pay more for policies they hope will appeal to you.

Mr Price says the policies would be paid for by "prioritising" the budget, and hinted at tax rises

Mr Price said the policies were "designed to offer opportunity in youth and dignity in old age".

He added: "After 20 years of a Labour-led government, there are still 200,000 children living in poverty in Wales.

"That is a blight on our communities and something I am determined to change with £35 a week child payment targeted at families, many who have to decide between heating the home and feeding the children.

"Plaid Cymru's childcare offer would boost the incomes of thousands of households, allowing non-working parents back into the workplace and creating up to 3,000 new jobs."

'No challenge too big'

"Similarly, the national care service will make Wales the 'caring nation' - valuing our carers and the cared for with salaries comparable with the NHS and making social care free at the point of delivery.

"I want to lead a government for all generations - a government delivering radical change, not for change's sake but for the sake of the thousands of families whose futures rest on it.

"I want my son to grow up in a country where poverty is a distant memory thanks to a belief that there is no challenge too big to overcome."

Mr Price said the 2021 election was a "time for change" of government.