Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Before I respond to the debate, may I just say that during the course of this debate, Members may have seen news emerging concerning the future of the Ford Bridgend engine plant? It is pure speculation at the moment and Ford are not commenting on the matter. I can tell Members that I have been in regular contact with the First Minister today. I've also spoken with the general secretary of Unite, with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, and also with the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, and I am seeking urgent talks with Ford. I will keep Members updated on the matter accordingly as soon as I have more information.

Dirprwy Lywydd, can I start my response to this debate with a sincere thanks to Members for their excellent contributions in this particular debate? I'd like to thank specifically those that brought forward this very important motion today. I'm pleased to be able to have the chance to respond on behalf of the Welsh Government. It's fair to say that when we talk in the Chamber about the things that matter to our communities—the creation of jobs, the importance of fair work, which has been mentioned by so many today, the need for high-quality education or the construction of good-quality housing—what we are really saying, whether it's explicitly stated or not, is that we want everybody to have the opportunity to live a full life, a life free of the shackles and the restrictions that poverty imposes. And as someone who grew up in north-east Wales, the son of a steelworker, who grew up in a working-class community and attended state schools, the elimination of poverty was the very reason why I got into elected politics. It's informed everything that I have done in each of my ministerial roles that I have been privileged to hold—the desire to stop a child's destiny from being determined by what they were born into.

I think the role that I have now is particularly important in this regard. It is the Minister for Economy and Transport that is standing up to respond to this debate today because it's that role that encapsulates the approach this Welsh Government takes to the fight against poverty. Namely, that it is only through a strong, resilient and dynamic economy that all people across all parts of Wales can benefit, and, in turn, doing so, can help in the eradication of poverty. Our economic action plan has been designed with that explicit purpose.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I am proud, as we look back over 20 years of devolution, of what the Welsh Government has done across that time to support individuals and families who find their lives constrained by poverty. We've developed a progressive model of support for people in Wales that, over the course of devolution, has been added to and indeed enhanced. It's focused on the small things, the bread and butter things, that have demonstrated in an intensely practical way that the concerns of working families are concerns. It's a social wage, comprising free prescriptions, the education maintenance allowance, free swimming, the free bus pass, the school holiday nourishment scheme that my colleague Kirsty Williams is expanding, and of course free school meals, on which we are spending £7 million more this year than last year. For some families in Wales, this social wage can be as much as £2,000, taking pressure off household budgets. And that approach has focused on making the best possible use of the powers available to us here in the Welsh Government in the toughest of circumstances.

But after the 2016 Assembly elections, what became abundantly clear was that as a Welsh Labour Government we needed an approach that more effectively harnessed the power that we had right across Government, and that as an economy Minister I was effectively placed to lead that work. As Minister for Economy and Infrastructure, I was very clear that resilient communities and resilient economies are underpinned by good-quality local employment, connected infrastructure, and skills for work. I'm incredibly proud of the stronger economy that the Welsh Labour Government has delivered over the last few years. There are now 300,000 more people in work in Wales since 1999, and the proportion of working-age people with no qualifications has more than halved. Perhaps most encouraging of all, economic inactivity rates in Wales are now broadly comparable or below the UK average for the first time ever.

But of course we recognise that the next five years will present huge challenges for our communities. Withdrawal from the European Union and the full impact of welfare reform will be compounded by the increasing pace of technological change and its impact on work and the labour market. Using all the economic levers that are at our disposal to ensure communities and the individuals living in them are more resilient to the challenges they will face over the next few years will be vital to our approach to tackling poverty, and that's why we have developed a cross-Government approach to support fairer, stronger economies across all our regions.

For individuals needing skills for work, a promise of a new employability programme that brings together our existing programmes into one single support system built around the individual, tailored for the individual, and better designed to tackle inactivity. For individuals wanting higher skills, a promise to create at least 100,000 all-age apprenticeships. For businesses wanting to grow and take on people, a new economic contract to drive up the availability of fair work and deliver the sort of inclusive growth that Huw Irranca-Davies talked about the need for. For working parents of three and four-year-olds, a pledge of 30 hours free childcare, 48 weeks of the year, to help more people back into the labour market. And for communities, investment in stronger, more integrated infrastructure, to ensure that major projects such as the metro schemes bring truly transformational change to local economies and local communities. We've developed this because we believe this to be the best strategy to tackle poverty in Wales in the long term.

But, Dirprwy Lywydd, as Rhianon Passmore—[Interruption.] Yes, indeed.