ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has published a new resource for retailers in Wales, highlighting the key policies have been set out in the manifestos of the main political parties ahead of the Welsh elections in May.
The 'Manifestos at A Glance' document is an easy to follow resource summarising the pledges of Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Reform, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party on the following areas of policy:
- Crime
- Employment
- High Streets and Business Rates
- Environment / DRS
- Public Health
Some of the manifesto commitments highlighted in the document include:
On business rates, the Conservative manifesto pledges to scrap rates altogether for small firms, pubs and post offices. Other parties have pledged to review and reform the rates system, with the Green Party suggesting that business rates could be replaced with a land value based tax system.
On crime, the Green Party have pledged to reduce the prison population and introduce more community-based alternatives to custody, while the Liberal Democrats will seek to work with Police and Crime Commissioners to halt the use of facial recognition technology to identify offenders.
One of the major questions that the next Government in Wales will need to answer is how they're going to manage the proposed Deposit Return Scheme after the current Welsh Government declined to appoint a scheme administrator before the election. The Conservative and Reform manifestos seek full alignment between the Welsh scheme and the scheme being introduced in the rest of the UK. Labour speak of a 'UK-leading bottle return scheme' but do not set out detail of what that would entail, while Plaid Cymru pledge to introduce a DRS that includes glass 'when practically feasible'. There are no mentions of the deposit return scheme in the Liberal Democrat or Green Party manifestos.
The full 'Manifestos at a Glance' document for Wales is available here.
