5. How is the Welsh Government tackling the cost-of-living crisis in Bridgend? OQ57675

Llywydd, this morning we announced a £330 million package of support to help Welsh households, including those in Bridgend, to manage the cost-of-living crisis. These measures focus on those actions that put money directly in the pockets of those most affected by it. 

Thank you, First Minister, and I do welcome the much-needed package of support put in place by the Welsh Labour Government, because last week I visited Splice Child and Family in Pyle, which runs a baby bank, and Baobab community pantry in Brackla. While there the volunteers shared with me the heartbreaking story of a mother who had recently, but reluctantly, visited and asked for support. That mother is eating once every three days to ensure she can feed her children, and, sadly, this situation is all too common for many people in Wales.

First Minister, there are people out there who are feeling anxiety and shame about needing a helping hand, and this shouldn't be the case. It is not their fault that food prices are increasing. It is not their fault that the cost of heating their home is rising, and they're not the ones who decided to cut universal credit. None of this is their fault. This is a Tory-made cost-of-living crisis. Do you agree with me that the UK Tory Government needs to step up and step in to tackle this cost-of-living crisis?

I do entirely agree with Sarah Murphy. That was a terrible story that she related from a visit that she has made, but it won't be one, really sadly, that is unfamiliar to many Members of the Senedd. Many of us, in our own constituency capacities, will have had to help families who find themselves in exactly that position, and it is, as that story shows, women who bear the burden of poverty in our communities, and I too have met mothers who tell you that they have to go without in order to make sure that they can put food on the table for their families.

This has been the story, Llywydd, now for the last 10 years. This is a cost-of-living crisis that has not been made in the last few weeks. This is a story that has been developed in that decade of austerity, a decade in which, year after year, inequality has grown, and the burden placed on the shoulders of those least able to bear it has been increased.

Now, Sarah Murphy pointed to the £20 reduction every week in money available to the least well-off households in the whole of Wales. I cannot think of a more cruel decision, because it was a deliberate decision. It was a decision where the Government knew before they did it that this would mean there would be children, children in households up and down Wales, who would have to go without as a result of what they did.

So, I do of course agree with what the Member for Bridgend said. On top of all the things that we as a Government are trying to do, and I'm very proud indeed of the package that we've been able to announce today, I'm very grateful for the assistance of our local authority colleagues in providing that help to those families. In Bridgend, Llywydd, just for example, in what we're doing already to help families with a winter fuel support payment, Bridgend council has paid nearly 7,000 families, in the latest figures I have seen, and has responded to over 90 per cent of all the applications that have been made. If the Welsh Government can do it, and if Welsh local authorities can do it in Wales, surely the Conservative Government in Westminster could step in and play their part as well.