There's been some very interesting contributions here this afternoon, and I've listened to most of them, some, I have to say, with interest, and others with disbelief, and I'm not going to make any further comments on which are which. But one thing I will say is that this is a joint budget, it has been agreed between Labour and Plaid, and Plaid have come to the table and put forward things that we could agree with so that we could produce a budget today, whereas others have just simply sniped from the sidelines.

I think that what we really need to do when we're looking at a budget for the foreseeable future is actually marry-up those things or join together policies that will make a difference. I have to congratulate the Tory Government that they have produced a growth industry in two areas: one is food banks and the other is homelessness, because their policies have produced, for the first time in my living memory, a massive increase in food banks. I'm sure that some of you will know that I've been on this planet for quite some time, and I have never seen anything quite like the appeals that are everywhere you turn, whether it's in a supermarket or the local press, on Facebook or Twitter, for donations to help feed people, not people who are out of work, but people who are in work. That's the cost of austerity, and I think it's absolutely disgraceful.

And let's be clear about what austerity really is: it's a political choice to reduce funding in the public sector. When they talk about ideology—they very often do talk about ideology—then we also have to talk about the ideological choice that has been made by a Tory Government in Westminster to cut the expenditure in the public sphere. So what does that mean and how should we link that together? Well, it's fairly obvious that if you reduce public spending in areas like Pembrokeshire, where 25 per cent of the population are actually employed in the public sector, you're also going to reduce the capacity to regenerate that area through local spend. It is a fact that, if people aren't working, or if their wages are suppressed because there's been a pay cap, that area will grow and grow in being poor, yet it is the case that the Conservative representatives will come here time and time again asking us to spend more money that we haven't got in those areas.

The other thing that is fairly clear is that, if you bring in universal credit in such a way that people end up owing huge amounts in rent arrears, it will also impact on the ability of those housing providers when they want to borrow money—they become a higher risk. I don't know whether, Cabinet Secretary, you have anything to say on that, but it is the case that the higher the risk that you become to a lender, the higher the cost of borrowing against it. So, when we hear the Conservatives actually saying to us, 'You must build more houses' or 'You must ensure that the housing stock is increased'—if universal credit, which they seem to support, because I haven't heard many of them talk against it, produces a negative impact on those policy areas that they consistently ask us to do something about, then they need to start joining things up. Because the budget doesn't stand in isolation, and Wales is impacted by the austerity that is coming thick and fast from the Westminster Government. When we talk about protecting things, Cabinet Secretary, I'd also ask you, as other people have mentioned here today—when we look at the Supporting People fund, and the fact that I understand that you have quite clearly said that you're going to put all of the money down to local government to make local determinations to save money on red tape, I also ask that you will monitor the spend around Supporting People, particularly in the area of ending violence against women and girls, so that those in most need don't end up not being provided for.