Thank you, Helen Mary Jones.

Whilst Plaid Cymru's motion adds a more constructive tone to this debate, it is difficult to scrutinise the proposals, its costings and the evidence base used. However, simply providing more money does not always provide actual long-term benefits to people's lives. Whilst income plays an important role in preventing poverty, the Policy Exchange think tank suggests that, by focusing on welfare and income transfers, we are treating the symptoms of the issue rather than addressing the deeper causes of low income and poverty, including: unemployment, poor standards of education, a lack of skills and social issues such as substance misuse. Tackling these issues requires a more community-focused response from Government. 

The Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for the co-production of local services to empower local communities and to create an enabling state. This was argued passionately by Mark Isherwood in the previous debate and there are some positive examples of this in Wales. Oxfam's sustainable livelihoods approach aims to improve the lives of those experiencing poverty and disadvantage, focusing on a participatory approach based on the recognition that all people have assets that can be developed to help them improve their lives. Oxfam have worked in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions to embed the SLA within the DWP in Wales by providing training for staff, with 50 per cent of trained staff sampled having increased levels of user satisfaction or reporting better service user outcomes.

The Welsh Conservatives recognise the importance of investing in the people of Wales to help tackle the injustices facing communities. We would establish a seaside town fund and market town fund to tackle deprivation within our towns, enabling communities to better fund the services local people need. We would focus on investing in people's skills to enable them to access more skilled, well-paid jobs—putting an extra £20 million into further education—and we would also fund more high-quality childcare to enable parents to take up employment opportunities to support their family.

Meanwhile, the UK Conservative Government is protecting the incomes of hard-working families and will raise the national insurance threshold to £9,500 and increase the living wage by 6.2 per cent from April 2020. It is a Conservative Government that is putting more money into people's pockets. This debate has provided a welcome opportunity to discuss some of the issues facing families across Wales, such as low incomes and poverty.