The Cost-of-living Crisis

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 9 February 2022.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 1:40, 9 February 2022

Well, as far as your Government is concerned, I wish that they would listen to the calls that we've been making to ensure that the costs that are placed on household bills, those social costs and, indeed, environmental costs, are actually met by general taxation. That is our call to the UK Government, and, also, that they increase the Warm Homes discount. The fact that they're actually announcing a rebate, which doesn't come in, as the First Minister said yesterday, until October, and then expecting everyone to pay that back is really insulting to those who are living at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis today. What we are doing with our Welsh Government is spending our money—you participated in the draft budget debate yesterday—and we may need to make sure that every pound of that goes out to deliver for those who are at the sharpest end. Where would the money come from, I have to say, in terms of those public services? We're certainly not going to go down your route. You need to persuade your Government in Westminster to invest through general taxation in the cost-of-living crisis.