Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 14 September 2016.
Thank you for that, but I think we do need to have a recognition as well that at least some of those billions have not achieved their intended aim, and I think we need to be open about that fact. It’s certainly the case that funding for anti-poverty programmes is at risk, and contingencies should be made, as you have indicated, to become more resilient.
But we also have to accept that the solutions may involve negligible costs to make savings long term. For example, we tried to legislate on outlawing zero-hours contracts in social care, your Government voted against attempts to phase out priority need, and the end of the Pereira test in the homelessness system so everyone was entitled to housing. So, you can see how we might be able to do this without having to, again, pump millions of pounds into that. How are you looking at new types of initiatives, as a result of this vote, and how then you will be trying to implement them as a Government?