Greens promise rent controls and £1 bus fares in Welsh election manifesto. 18 hours ago. David DeansWales political reporter. The Wales Green Party has promised to introduce rent controls to help bring down living costs as it published its manifesto for the Senedd election.. Welsh leader Antony Slaughter said his party would freeze rent for a year before giving councils powers to apply caps on what tenants pay.. He promised to cap bus fares to £1 for most people, with free travel for under 22s, and to replace council tax.. The party does not expect to form the next Welsh government, but hopes its policies could form part of negotiations when the Senedd decides who will be the next first minister of Wales.. A closer look at the Green Party’s Senedd manifesto. The party, in common with all other party manifestos so far, has not published full costings for its plan. Independent think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the Greens’ manifesto was “clearly not a complete, costed plan for government”.. Launching his manifesto in Port Talbot, Slaughter declined to say which of any of the party’s policies would be a red line in negotiations with other parties hoping to lead the next government, but said that housing was a priority.. The Greens say opinion polls show they are on course to get candidates elected to the Senedd for the first time in the history of Wales’ parliament.. Slaughter said the manifesto says how the party will “turn people’s lives around and make a better, fairer future for everyone”.. “People out there are hurting. People are in despair – people are angry,” he said, blaming “decades of exploitation” and “27 years of managed decline” under Welsh Labour.. “That anger is being used to shape something ugly and divisive,” he said.. “We acknowledge that anger but we are offering solutions to the problems. We are offering answers to the things that trouble them.”. The party said it had several priorities for the Senedd election including:. scrapping council tax to replace it with a tax based on the value of land, instead of property. an end to corridor care in hospitals. £1 bus fares for 22-59 year olds and free bus travel for under-22s. bring Welsh Water back into public ownership. universal child care from nine months. clear goals to protect wildlife. But Slaughter made clear that his housing proposals were the most important in the 43-page document.. “The cost of living crisis is paramount,” Slaughter said, which he said “all starts with housing”.. “Everyone has a right to a safe, warm, affordable secure home. That isn’t the case for so many people. It is so precarious, especially for younger people.”. The party said it would introduce a one-year rent freeze, which will be followed by a system that would allow the Welsh government to approve local authority “rent pressure zones”.. In the zones rent caps would apply to keep housing affordable. Rent increases will only be permitted “where landlords deliver genuine improvements
