Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:15 pm on 10 December 2019.
On the administrative control, we have a report that we're awaiting from the Wales Centre for Public Policy. We have had the interim report, but we are expecting the final report shortly. So, once we've got that report, we are, of course, looking to see what that report tells us in terms of taking administrative control.
I share her wish to administer welfare benefits in a more humane fashion. I said so in my statement. We would very much like to see people who are entitled to benefits get them in the first place without having to go through the misery of an appeal and so on. But we also have to be very careful that, in doing that, we don't make the situation worse and that we are able to mitigate the sanctions and mandation system, which is driving so many people into despair in this country. So, I want to be very clear about what we want to achieve with that. And when we get the report we will certainly be sharing it with the Assembly and looking to see whether we can administer it in a more humane way.
In terms of a strategy, I personally have had discussions with the child poverty action group and the children's commissioner about what we mean by a strategy. I don't want to divert resources into collating something if it doesn't do something. What we need to do is make sure that our programmes are actually getting to the people who need them and that they're the most effective they can be. So, I'm leading a review across the Government of a whole series of our programmes to ensure that they continue to be fit for purpose, or whether they need to be changed, whether they need to have different targets. Because as the universal credit regime is rolled out, we need to hit a different tier of people.
The other disgraceful thing—I have to say an absolutely disgraceful thing—is the number of children who are in working households where they are still in poverty. Clearly, the universal credit system does not work. One of the things that people on the benches opposite never want to take any responsibility for is the level of local housing allowance, which we've discussed in this Chamber before, which has not been increased for four years, and which is driving huge numbers of people in the private rented sector into poverty as a result of having to top up their rent payments. The benches opposite could solve that tomorrow morning if they wanted to. They choose not to. So, there are a number of things of that sort that are very difficult to mitigate.
Leanne Wood will be aware that we are looking to make sure that people who live in the private rented sector have houses that are fit for human habitation, meet certain standards and are treated fairly by their landlords. These are the mitigation effects that we can do. Unfortunately, we cannot change the level of local housing allowance.
What we can do, though, is build a lot more social houses so that we can get people into the right sort of housing, and the faster we can do that the better. We're working very hard with councils right across Wales to get that programme running, now that we've got the Tory cap on the housing revenue accounts removed.
And in terms of the Scottish model, there are difficulties with Scotland. We're of course happy to learn from anyone who's able to do this effectively, but Scotland is encountering difficulties in what it's doing. We are very happy to learn from any country that's able to do this more effectively. The ones that are, of course, most effective are the ones that have proper progressive Governments, like those in Finland, where the tax system matches the need of public policy agenda. And that's what we would like to see when we have a Labour Government return to Westminster on Thursday.