M4 relief road and income tax cuts in Welsh Tories' promise to 'fix Wales'
The Welsh Conservative Party says it would save the average working family £450 per year with income tax cuts and build an M4 relief road if it wins the Senedd election.
On Tuesday the party was the first to launch a manifesto for May's election, with Senedd Tory leader Darren Millar promising to "put more money into the pockets of hardworking people".
Pledging to cut the basic rate of income tax by 1p, the party said it would require referendums on council tax rises over 5% and scrap Welsh stamp duty on main home purchases.
But the respected independent think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned the manifesto "lacks a credible plan" for the savings needed to fund the proposed tax cuts.
Costings were not included in the manifesto document, which was unveiled by Millar in Cardiff.
Wales was "crying out for positive change", he said, calling the manifesto a "rescue mission".
Each political party will publish a manifesto - a list of pledges explaining to voters what it would do if elected - ahead of the 7 May election for Wales' parliament.
Millar's manifesto promised to scrap the 20mph default speed limit, ban mobile phones in schools and scrap business rates for small firms.
Pledges include requiring a local referendum on council tax increases over 5%.
The party says it would re-establish the Welsh Development Agency to attract inward investment, promote business growth and create jobs.
A £1,000 tuition fee discount is promised for students studying science, technology, engineering or maths subjects.
Fees for nursing, medicine, teaching and dentistry students who study in Wales and work for five years in the Welsh NHS or the country's schools would be refunded.
The Tories also promised to boost the farming budget by £100m and implement a moratorium on large wind and solar farms.
No further powers would be sought for the Senedd in Cardiff Bay and the Tories promised to not spend any money on non-devolved matters, and to reverse the increase in the number of Senedd members.
The party would scrap the future generations commissioner, which tries to get Welsh public bodies to take into account future generations in their decision making, and extend the powers of the older people's commissioner for Wales.
Wales' "tourism tax" - legislation that allows councils to apply a levy to hotel stays - would be scrapped.
The Tories have performed poorly in recent opinion polls, suggesting they could come fourth at the election for the Welsh Parliament.
Although publicly the party is saying it could form the next government, privately its politicians acknowledge it could have a smaller role and lose seats in the new, larger Senedd.
It won 16 at the last election in 2021, making it the second largest party at the time, although it has lost Senedd members since then.
At the manifesto launch event in Cardiff, Millar pitched the document - titled "Fix Wales" - as a "positive plan to unleash economic growth, create jobs, promote home ownership, cut taxes and waste, put more money into the pockets of hardworking people across the country and fix our public services".
"People in Wales are crying out for positive change, this is our credible and costed plan to deliver just that," he said, adding that people would be "better off under a Welsh Conservative government".
A vote for Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Liberal Democrats or Welsh Labour is a "vote for more of the same", he said, calling neither Reform UK or the Green Party "credible or serious".
However, a Welsh government ready reckoner - a tool which estimates how policy changes would impact finances - estimates that a 1p cut would save individuals about £220 per person and collect £311m less in tax which the Welsh government would have to find from its budget.
Taxpayers pay the basic rate of 20% on the first £50,270 of earnings, after the personal allowance of £12,570 is taken into account.
The Welsh government is able to vary tax rates but under Labour has never done so.
Earlier on Tuesday, speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Millar said the tax cut would be funded "through a 1.15% efficiency drive across the Welsh government's budget".
He did not say what might be cut.
The Tories say they would deliver an M4 relief road - a project to bypass the existing M4 by building a new motorway on the Gwent Levels to tackle congestion on the motorway.
The scheme was ditched by former first minister Mark Drakeford in 2019 because of its cost and environmental impact - at the time it was thought to cost £1.6bn.
Millar declined to give a time-scale when asked at a press conference how long it would take, saying he didn't want to make a "unrealistic promise".
He said it would be funded partly from the Welsh government's budget, from borrowing and "trying to work with the UK government" to find extra cash.
The Conservatives also promised to upgrade the A55 and make the A40 to Fishguard in Wales a dual-carriageway.
Athena PicturesMiller promised to reverse the 20mph default speed limit in built up areas and "adopt a targeted approach".
"We haven't done any modelling on child casualties," said Millar, suggesting no estimates had been made how many children could be injured by the policy.
He said limits are "appropriate in some places", and said a Tory government would work with councils to find areas where "they make sense", while reverting other roads to 30mph.
He told BBC Wales there was an "opportunity cost because if you keep the road speed slower that has an impact on the economy. It means you take less in tax".
Millar said the £40m that was spent on 20mph could have been spent on emergency care.
In its initial analysis, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) questioned the manifesto's credibility.
David Phillips, the think tank's head of devolved and local government finance, said: "The Welsh Conservatives' flagship proposals are reductions to three of Wales's devolved taxes: the Welsh rates of income tax, land transaction tax and business rates.
"But at a time when spending pressures in many areas are rising, a government that wants to cut taxes must also commit to spending less – and the manifesto lacks a credible plan for where these savings will come from."
It was "much easier to promise efficiency savings than to deliver them – and history is replete with governments failing to achieve productivity targets and having to top up budgets", he warned.
It was therefore "hard to see how the proposed combination of tax cuts and spending increases could be paid for without significant cut-backs in at least some Welsh government services", Phillips added.
The Conservative manifesto launch was organised at short notice, with journalists told on Monday it would happen the next day.
BBC Wales was told that the event was timed so the Tories launched their manifesto before Reform on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Adrian Browne
In March, BBC Wales is holding a live debate in Wrexham with a panel of politicians ahead of the Senedd election. Click here to apply to be in the audience.