Adam Price: Llywydd, on behalf of the Plaid Cymru group in the Senedd, I stand to express our sadness and to extend our deepest sympathies to the royal family, following the death of Queen Elizabeth.
Adam Price: The tributes paid to the late Queen Elizabeth over the past number of days have been legion, but one comment by a former royal courtier, quoted in a piece by Alastair Campbell, stood out for me: that the Queen understood 'the communism of humanity'. Now, that is a startling claim; its substance, its subject and its source. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was, by definition, by royal...
Adam Price: The eternal unity of earth and heaven.
Adam Price: MacLeod talked about thin places where there was just a thin tissue dividing the material and the spiritual, where heaven and earth seemed to touch. But, there are thin moments too, liminal moments, thresholds between the life with a loved one we have lost, and the life we are about to begin without them. It's in these moments of profound absence, as we stand at a crossroads of change, that...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Prif Weinidog, Governments all over Europe are asking urgently what more they can do to help their citizens with the cost-of-living crisis, and with the rising cost of fuel, making public transport more affordable has become a key theme. Spain has announced free rail journeys from September until the end of the year. In Germany we've had the highly successful €9 a month...
Adam Price: Reductions in prices for public transport fares actually don't automatically, inevitably lead to that kind of revenue reduction. It depends on the elasticity of demand for public transport. This is the case that the rail unions have been making, that, actually, if you reduce fares, you increase patronage, and of course you have a situation at the moment that, still, train journeys have only...
Adam Price: I have to say that the argument you're making is directly in contradiction to what Labour-affiliated unions like ASLEF are saying, that, actually, a substantial reduction could help us increase a modal shift that will create a new habit of using public transport, which will actually have benefits in terms of revenue generation. Let's move from rail to buses. The Labour mayor of the north-west...
Adam Price: There are a number of things to be welcomed in today's statement, particularly, of course, the agreement that we've come to in terms of the provision of free school meals during school holidays. That will help very many families that are facing hardship at the moment. And, particularly, the warm banks that the First Minister referred to. Although it is regrettable that we do have to refer to...
Adam Price: The Scottish Government has recently announced a set of proposals as part of its response to the cost-of-living crisis, and I was wondering if I could ask you, Prif Weinidog, if you also have plans to introduce measures that they have announced in relation to housing, particularly a moratorium on evictions similar to the one that was introduced in the pandemic and an associated rent freeze...
Adam Price: There is one important lever that has been referred to that is in your control, which would make immediate, direct impact upon people's situation, and that would be imposing a rent freeze in the private sector and imposing a moratorium on evictions in the private rental sector. That wouldn't have any fiscal consequences to the Welsh Government but would have huge consequences for many, many...
Adam Price: Sorry, will the Minister—? [Inaudible.] I was referring to an imposition of a rent freeze in the private sector. That hasn't been imposed by the Welsh Government yet, has it, and it wouldn't have any fiscal consequences, but it would have huge, beneficial consequences for families.
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Rent is rising higher in Wales than anywhere else in the UK, except London. Rent in Cardiff alone has increased 36 per cent in just two years. A quarter of private tenants in Wales are worried they will lose their homes in the next three months. Shelter Cymru, echoed in England by the Kerslake commission on homelessness, are calling for the reintroduction of a temporary ban...
Adam Price: In an emergency, we as a Senedd need to be able to pass emergency legislation; we can sit at weekends, if necessary, to do this. The Scottish Government has also announced a rent freeze at least until the end of March next year. Sadiq Khan, as Mayor of London, has asked for the power to introduce a rent freeze there. We have that power already in Wales, and since social housing rent won't...
Adam Price: People are facing this cost-of-living crisis now, aren't they, so we need a sense of urgency. A rent freeze, it's practical, it's necessary, but it's not radical or new—even the Heath Conservative Government did it in 1972 when we were last facing a period of stagflation. Harold Wilson, again, did it when Labour was elected in 1974. If the centre-right and centre-left of British politics...
Adam Price: What additional funding will the Welsh Government allocate to Carmarthenshire County Council as it faces increasing energy costs for its buildings?
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. In your discussions with the Scottish First Minister last week, it was reported that you focused on the cost-of-living crisis. It's good to see that you, at least, First Minister, are prepared to talk with the SNP even if Keir Starmer is not. Now, yesterday, the SNP Government published emergency legislation to freeze rents across Scotland, backdated to 6 September, running...
Adam Price: Nobody, First Minister, is arguing that they are a panacea; they need to be implemented alongside a whole range of measures. They are temporary measures because we are facing an emergency. Winter is almost upon us. Why do you think, First Minister, that Shelter in Wales is calling for a rent freeze, is calling for a moratorium? Why do you think that the Kerslake commission, led by the former...
Adam Price: It begs the question: why did we introduce a moratorium during COVID on evictions? There are certain circumstances—emergencies, crises—where it is necessary to bring in temporary measures, and I'm afraid that many, many people are making these arguments in the housing sector, not just in Scotland, not just in Wales, but across the whole of Europe. Can I turn to one of the unfunded Tory...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. This winter's cost-of-living crisis is coming on top of years of austerity, in which workers' pay has fallen behind year on year. People are working more hours for less money, and working people in increasing numbers are saying that enough is enough. Only a few weeks ago, at the Labour conference, a motion was unanimously backed from Unison for inflation-proof pay rises. Led...
Adam Price: I have to say to the First Minister: look, awful politics in Westminster is not an excuse for poor politics here in Wales. These disputes are not just about pay; they're about the survival of our essential public services. In healthcare, we have a workforce crisis, with more and more people leaving by the day. There are 3,000 nursing vacancies in Wales, a rise of more than 1,200 on last year....