Plaid Cymru need to try harder at maths.
Plaid Cymru are at it again – obviously their policy people must have been schooled under Labour's failing system. Either that or they are deliberately trying to mislead the public.
As reported by Wales Online Plaid have announced a new policy – to cut Council Tax for the majority of people in Wales. They say the current system is not fair – something the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been saying for a long time and certainly agree with. We would review the whole system.
Plaid are promising substantial cuts to bills for those in lower band properties. They say they will pay for it by upping the tax on more expensive properties, the top 5%, where people could find themselves paying up to a third more. They would then be compensated for that by a reduction in income tax! Bribes for everyone then.
Yet as Wales Online points out, the maths don't add up.
"Rough maths suggest the cost to give 198,000 homes an extra £400 would be £79.2m.
"Add to that, giving 287,000 Band B homes £360 would be £103m.
"And giving 296,000 Band C homes £160 would cost £47m
"hat leaves a £230m gap.
"If that was to be funded only by the top 5% of homes, as specified by Mr Price, which is the 68,451 homes in the top three bands G-I , it would be equivalent to £3,360 for each house.
"That's more than double the top rate in any Welsh council area – which comes in between £2,401 and £3,815 a year.
"If that sum was met by the top 25% of households, which includes bands E and above, it would be roughly equivalent to a third extra for each of those 359,000 homes."
This is not the first time Plaid have made promises that they will not be able to keep because their figures do not make sense. It seems they are more interested in headline grabbing stories than in actual common sense policies which will benefit the people of Wales.
