DELEGATES at Plaid’s conference adopted the party’s economic strategy, Making Wales Work, today and then debated how to make communities wealthier.

Former party leader Leanne Wood said: “We have to learn from our history and make sure we don’t make the mistakes of the past.

“The profits extracted from the coalfields left Wales and its communities impoverished and in poor health.

“We are moving away from fossil fuels, but the question remains: who will benefit from the money extracted from renewable energy?”

Ms Wood has worked with former Labour MP Beth Winter, speaking with communities and reporting on community-owned schemes that keep the benefit locally.

“We need to ensure that shared ownership with communities for energy is mandated by the Welsh government,” she said.

Plaid economic strategy architect Luke Fletcher said that with some wind farm developments, the only community benefit has been rugby kit for the local club.

He said: “Wind farms are highly extractive and we need to see more tangible community benefits like improved housing.

“Unless we address the issue of ownership, we won’t have an economy that benefits people and communities.”

Ms Wood clarified that joint community ownership means the profit is shared with local people and therefore they benefit more and can plough the money back into other community assets.

The Bevan Foundation’s Steffan Evans said that usually the only assets given to communities to run are the ones that are losing money, such as swimming pools or leisure centres.

“The sun, wind and water are community assets and should not be subject to profit extraction by private companies,” Ms Wood said.