Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 16 February 2022.
Thank you for the points and the series of questions. I think it's interesting, the point about wage growth, because even at the start of this week, there was a suggestion that we would see significant wage growth figures coming through, and yet the figures actually showed that wages had not kept pace with inflation. And I think the previous comments of the Governor of the Bank of England about needing to suppress wages to try to keep control of inflation—there were commentators and economists on both the left and the right, as it were, who both thought those were rather odd remarks and not borne out by what is actually driving inflation at present: it isn't wages.
The Resolution Foundation said we can expect a cost-of-living catastrophe in April without further action. Now, that's part of the reason why Rebecca Evans unveiled a £330 million package for Wales yesterday. It goes beyond the UK Government package announced for England, but, of course, that has been delivered here in Wales without any extra funding coming to Wales.
I think, on your point about powers, actually it's the resource that we need to be able to address the cost-of-living crisis, and it's also the willingness of the UK Government to do something about it. I just think that, for businesses as well as for households, thinking that the current fix that's been announced to date is going to get us through till the end of April I think is fanciful. I think many families and businesses will find the increase in costs that are coming very hard to deal with. And for many of my constituents and many people across Wales, that means even more people choosing between heating and eating. It means even more parents going hungry to try to make sure their children are fed. So, there are changes we want to see: we want to see the cut to universal credit restored; we want to see further action. And, yes, we do support the cause for a windfall levy on energy companies who are making eye-watering sums of money. When you have Shell and BP talking about their businesses as cash machines, and they can't spend the money quick enough, I don't think that this is something where a UK Government could simply say that it will refuse to act and leave people to their fate. I certainly hope that the Chancellor is listening, because I've certainly had those conversations with the Minister for Social Justice, the Minister for Climate Change, and, indeed, the finance Minister and others, about what we could and should do here in Wales with the resources available to us.