Fairness for our Rural Communities

Living in rural areas can cost more than living in urban areas, while services are less easily available. Our pledge to increase GPs in Wales will help communities to access the healthcare they need, while we will work to invest in local high streets to keep shops open. We will provide support to local communities to keep open important services, such as pubs and community centres, which are under threat due to rising costs.

We will ensure greater prominence and priority for rural areas to receive digital connections, taking a truly ‘outside in’ approach so that communities are not left waiting in order to access essential online services.

Plaid Cymru has previously called for the establishment of a Welsh Broadband Infrastructure Company. We have also called for the UK Government to release more Project Gigabit money increasing the investment to tackle the “very hard to reach areas” or the “total not-spots” where there is no fast broadband or 4G signal at all and bring the timescales forward. We will also push for more investment in alternative technology projects especially in the “very hard to reach” areas e.g. small cell projects / Fixed Wireless Access.

There has been a rise in rural crime in recent years, and would work to create a specialist all-Wales rural crime team, seeking to recruit officers from the farming community, building upon the work already done by Police and Crime Commissioners in the North Wales and Dyfed-Powys police force areas.

We have previously called for a reconfiguration of the Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme which, alongside existing parameters, takes into account access to local public transport networks, and a guarantee of inclusion of Welsh areas within the scheme. We have also supported it being doubled to 10p per litre.

We will insist on alternative methods to avoid the un-necessary destruction of our beautiful countryside for large industrial scale solar farms and pylons. Communities should genuinely benefit from any developments in their area, rather than receive a pittance for extraction and use of our natural resources.

We recognise that some renewable technologies like heat pumps aren’t suitable to rural properties. We could therefore support removing the tax on renewable liquid fuels, to make them more affordable for rural households who want to reduce their home heating emissions in a non-disruptive way. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by almost 90% compared to existing heating oil.