5. What assessment has the First Minister made of the impact of an increase in council tax on the finances of people in South Wales East who are facing financial difficulties? OQ56164

Llywydd, in recognition of the financial difficulties facing individuals and public services, the Welsh Government’s draft budget provides an uplift of 3.8 per cent in revenue funding for local authorities, at a time when inflation is rising at 0.6 per cent, and when our own budget in 2021-22 will be more than 3 per cent lower in real terms than a decade ago.

I thank the First Minister for that answer and for those points. However, many families and individuals in my region have faced real financial hardships even though they don't qualify for council tax support as it is available. A recent report by the Bevan Foundation found that nearly a quarter of households have seen their incomes fall since the start of the pandemic, while at the same time they've seen their living costs increase. It found that one in five households with incomes of less than £20,000 a year have had to cut back on food, on heating, electricity and water. We know that council tax is the most regressive tax we have, because it places the biggest burden on low-income households and we've had confirmation that councils, including one in my region, in Caerphilly, intend to raise council tax by 4 per cent. The Labour Party leader in England, Keir Starmer, said it is absurd to expect hard-pressed families to pay more and called on the UK Government to cover the proposed increases in England. Will the Welsh Government do that in Wales?

Well, Llywydd, if the UK Government provides funding to allow that to happen, then we will get, we assume—although that's an assumption that becomes more questionable these days—a Barnett consequential of that decision and that would allow us to do more to help families here in Wales. The Member will know that, unlike in England, our council tax benefit system operates across the whole of Wales, that the Welsh Government put £22 million over and above the money that came from the UK Government when that benefit was devolved to us, and that hundreds of thousands of households in Wales benefit from that provision. Because of a take-up campaign that the Welsh Government with local authorities mounted earlier last year, we've had 10,000 more additional households apply since the end of March to benefit from the council tax benefit, and that is because of the pressures on household incomes that the Member quite rightly sets out.

We use every opportunity we have to provide services and financial help that leaves money in the pockets of families who otherwise would have to pay for things themselves. Where more help comes from the UK Government, we will deploy that to help those families further. In the meantime, I go back to a point that Huw Irranca-Davies made, Llywydd, in the very first question this afternoon, that the biggest help that the UK Government can provide, and the most urgent help it needs to provide, is to guarantee that the £20 a week that the poorest families in the land now get when they are on universal credit continues beyond 31 March this year. Without that, the hard-pressed families that Delyth Jewell has referred to will be £1,000 a year worse off, and there's no family in Wales living on those sorts of incomes that can possibly afford to be in that position.