Apart from boiling the water a few times, Maggie, can't really suggest anything else. I've had the same thing. All I can say is it does eventually go. In the past I always made the mistake of lashing out on big name (Morphy Richards et al) brands, but they failed after a couple of years. The most recent - Tesco branded - kettle is still going strong about 4 years after purchase. It too added that unique plastic aroma for a while, but it disappeared.
I think I only paid about £5 or £6 for my last kettle which lasted me 5 yrs because I had so much to buy for a new house.
It started leaking so I thought I would get a better one. Wish I hadn't bothered now.
Notice> All kettle manufacturers should provide the following info for their customers!
"How to remove the plastic taste from any new kettle!"
Method 1)
a) Fill the new kettle with 1 liter of cool fresh water¨
b) Add 1 teaspoon of salt in to the 1 liter of water & stir it well w/ a wooden spoon!
c) Boil this salted water & then empty it in to the kitchen sink!
d) Thoroughly rinse out the kettle out & fill the kettle w/ the same amount of 1 liter of cool fresh water that was used for method 1 detailed in # (1a) above but w/ no salt!
e) Re-fil the kettle w/ fresh water to make your coffee / tea & drink it - then you'll find that the plastic taste in your drink has gone!
You may need to do method 1 above twice or three times for all the plastic taste to be completely gone - but it will be!
Thanks for your time!