Rent controls and water reform could be price of Senedd deal - Wales Greens' leader

Rent controls and reform of the water industry in Wales could form part of any deal involving the Greens after the Senedd election, the party's Welsh leader has suggested.

Anthony Slaughter told The Phone-In on BBC Radio Wales that any Green support for a new government would not "come for nothing".

He said his party would make that government "bolder, and go faster and further" if it was part of any arrangement.

The Greens have never won a seat in the Senedd, but polls suggest that the party is on course to do so for the first time.

According to some of those polls Plaid Cymru and Reform are vying for first place in the election on 7 May, with Labour struggling to hold on to power after 27 years in charge in Cardiff Bay.

The Greens, like Plaid Cymru, support independence for Wales.

"We are not just there to nod things through or just sort of tinker round the edges," Slaughter said.

"A change of management is not what we're standing for, it's not what we're offering people."

He added: "It means not just putting forward a plan to have committees, more commissions."

Plaid Cymru's recent plan for its first 100 days, should it win power, was criticised by the party's opponents for the number of commissions, audits and reviews it proposed.

"It means actually starting to do things from day one, things that can be done from day one like rent freezes," Slaughter told the programme.

"We have got to look at the ownership model of Welsh Water. It is not working."

Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water supplies the majority of people in Wales with their water.

It is owned by a not-for-profit company.

Later in the phone-in Slaughter suggested that the Greens election manifesto would propose bringing Dwr Cymru back into "genuine public ownership as one way of cleaning things up".

Slaughter said he was concerned about the "state" of Wales' rivers and coastline.

Dwr Cymru has been asked to comment.

On rent control, he said that problems in the housing sector were down to rogue landlords who charged "exorbitant rent for mouldy damp flats" and people who "owned multiple properties".

He did not give a definition of "multiple".

Slaughter also took questions on the NHS and the war in the Middle East.

He declined to say whether the Greens would invest more money in the NHS, but said funding needed to be used "wisely", without specifying how.

The Greens, he said, would prioritise preventative health and integrate social care into the health service.

He said that he had no sympathy for the "oppressive regime" in Iran, but that the military action taken by the USA and Israel broke international law.

"You cannot bomb your way to peace."

"Britain should never be complicit in any of these illegal acts," he said.

The Phone-In on BBC Radio Wales invited each of the main Welsh party leaders or representatives on to the programme over six weeks.

Later this month, 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.