2. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government regarding the cost-of-living crisis? OQ57603

I thank the Member for that question, Llywydd. We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to act to prevent the crisis for which they are themselves responsible. A decade of austerity has left many more people in poverty and unable to manage the situation in which they now find themselves.

Well, First Minister, you're right, and I'm seeing it day by day in Ogmore—and I'm sure every Member here is, regardless of party affiliation—because families in Ogmore are now facing multiple whammies. It's a cost-of-living crisis done by Conservative UK Government policies. The cut to universal credit has impacted tens of thousands of families right across Wales. The introduction of the Way2Work programme, slashing the time people have to find a job in their area of skill and experience from three months to just four weeks, means that now people are going to be facing sanctions before financial support is in place. And it doesn't end there. Households are facing the wide-ranging, mounting pressures we all know about: the weekly shop is rising, the energy costs are increasing, and we've got more tax rises coming down the tunnel from this Conservative UK Government. This is going to make things worse. The choice between heating and eating is not rhetoric; it is now reality. Do you agree with me, First Minister, that the Chancellor's buy now, pay later—as it has been described by the chief executive of Citizens Advice—energy bills rebate is loading the burden onto those who can least afford it?

Well, Llywydd, I completely agree with Huw Irranca-Davies that that is the inevitable result of the mismanagement of the UK economy—that the costs of that mismanagement will be loaded onto those people who can least afford to bear that burden. Can I just pick up two points from the many powerful points that the Member made? I'm very glad that he made reference to the Way2Work programme, because I don't think I've heard it discussed on the floor of the Senedd, and it deserves to be. We've already seen the impact of the £20 cut in universal credit for families here in Wales, one of the most cruel decisions that I think any Government has made in the last 70 years. You've got to back before the war to the 1930s to find a Government that deliberately and knowingly took money on that scale out of the pockets of households that needed it the most. In our discretionary assistance fund, where we've been able to extend the criteria to help families, because of universal credit, last month 57 per cent of all the applications were because of people not being able to manage without that extra £20 a week. It really is an astonishing scale of distress that has been caused by that decision. And now, on top of that, as Huw Irranca-Davies has said, we have that announcement smuggled out, that in future people will only have four weeks in which to find a job for which they are skilled, experienced and capable. It takes five weeks to get a payment out of universal credit, and I think there were even Members here—Conservative Members here—who pressed, earlier last year, for the Chancellor to reduce that waiting time. So, it takes you five weeks to wait for a payment, and four weeks to wait to be sanctioned. I think that just tells you everything you need to know about where the priorities of the UK Government lie.

The second point that Huw Irranca-Davies made that I wanted to draw on, Llywydd, was the buy now, pay later scheme. So, here we are: the help that people will get with their bills will be that they themselves will end up paying later than they would pay now. Now, you might have thought, if you'd just listened to the way that UK Ministers talked about it, that this help will be available to people in the next few weeks. It will actually be October. It will be October before that help is provided. And I hear Ofgem saying that they intend to shorten the period over which they revisit the price cap from six months to three months, which means that, potentially, there will be two further price rises in fuel bills before people get even the help that the Chancellor has announced so far, and then they'll have to pay it back. That does not sound to me like something that is likely to be broadly welcomed by people who are struggling, not just with fuel bills, but with the national insurance contributions, with food prices rising, with inflation at 7 per cent. All of these make for a very torrid time ahead for the families in Ogmore, with which their Senedd representative, I know, will be deeply concerned.

I thank the Member for Ogmore for raising this important issue, even though I don't agree with perhaps all of the sentiment nor the way he presents it. But, following the welcome announcement by the Chancellor of a package of support to help people with the rising costs of living, including support to cope with rising energy costs as well as council tax rebate, the Welsh Government will receive around £175 million in consequential funding. I'm sure that you will agree, First Minister, with me, that it's important that this substantial funding is used to provide urgent support to people during this difficult time. What consideration has the Welsh Government given to providing a council tax rebate to help reduce the pressure on families, as well as creating a discretionary fund for local authorities to provide to those households already eligible for a reduction in council tax? Thank you.

Well, Llywydd, I thank Peter Fox for that. He talks about a package of support. I think I've already explained that the help with fuel bills is help that just allows you to defer the bill. It doesn't give you any money; it just means you don't have to pay all of it up front. He speaks of 'urgent' help, and that help will arrive with all the urgency that next October brings. There was a tiny increase from £140 to £150 in the warm home discount, but again that isn't money from the Treasury; that's money that goes on everybody else's bill, as part of the social and environmental costs that all consumers have to bear.

Now, I know that the Member will be very well aware that you cannot draw a direct comparison on council tax between Wales and England. When the Chancellor's £150 reduction in a band D bill in England is applied, a band D council tax in England will still be higher than a band D average council tax in Wales, even after the Chancellor's help has been applied. And in Wales, we have the council tax benefit scheme, which was abandoned by his Government in England nearly 10 years ago—£244 million, Llywydd, way above any consequential we will receive, provided every year; 220,000 households in Wales paying no council tax at all. What I will say to the Member is this: that if we receive £175 million to help households in Wales with the cost-of-living crisis, that is what the money will be used for, but it will be used in ways that recognise the existing landscape in Wales, the fact that help is already available in Wales that doesn't exist across our border. We will find the most effective ways of getting that money from us to the families who need it, and we'll make those decisions as quickly as we are able.