The Welsh Conservatives have today launched a manifesto for rural Wales, setting out a comprehensive plan to back farmers, strengthen rural communities and grow the rural economy.
'Our Plan for Rural Wales' includes a commitment to invest an additional £100 million in agriculture, and scrap Labour and Plaid Cymru’s Sustainable Farming Scheme to replace it with a new scheme focused on food security and productivity.
The document also sets out measures to support rural communities, including taking decisive action to eradicate Bovine TB, abolish business rates for rural pubs and post offices, improve connectivity, introduce a moratorium on industrial scale wind and solar farm developments, and establish a Community Ownership Fund to protect community assets at risk of closure.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Leader Darren Millar said:
“Rural Wales has been overlooked for too long by successive Labour-led Welsh Governments.
“Our plan will boost the rural economy, back our farmers, protect our landscapes, and recognises that our countryside is an asset, not a problem to be managed.
“Only the Welsh Conservatives will deliver the investment, support and leadership needed to help rural Wales thrive.”
Also commenting, Welsh Conservative Rural Affairs Spokesperson Samuel Kurtz said:
“Farmers and rural communities need a government that understands them and works with them, not against them.
“That’s why we are the only party serious about supporting farmers with a food-security first scheme, eradicating bovine TB and investing money into the agriculture budget.
“We will also strengthen the rural economy by supporting local businesses, boosting tourism, improving infrastructure and cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, ensuring rural Wales has a strong and sustainable future.”
The Welsh Conservatives plan will:
· Introduce a Food (Wales) Bill to strengthen local supply chains
· Scrap the Tourism Tax and support growth in coastal and market towns
· Take action to improve broadband and tackle mobile signal blackspots
· Establish a new environmental regulator to replace Natural Resources Wales
· Introduce a moratorium on large-scale wind and solar developments to protect the countryside.
· Replace the all-Wales Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) ‘farming by calendar’ approach with a targeted, catchment-based system that reflects local environmental conditions.
ENDS
Note to editors:
The Full Welsh Conservative Rural Affairs Manifesto can be found here.
