3. How is the Welsh Government supporting families in Newport East with rising household bills? OQ57943

Llywydd, Newport East families will be supported by the Welsh Government's £380 million package designed to help families across Wales with rising household bills. We will continue to do all we can within our powers to protect the most vulnerable, and we need a UK Government willing to do likewise.

First Minister, this morning, as chair of the Senedd's cross-party group on poverty, I chaired a joint meeting with our counterparts in the UK and Scottish Parliaments, and we heard from organisations and charities right across the UK on the scale of the current cost-of-living crisis and growing poverty. Clearly, these organisations are very worried indeed, as I think we all are. First Minister, COVID aggravated the existing inequality in Wales and the UK, and now we have these rising household energy costs and food bills, along with much else. I know that the response you referred to, First Minister, is reaching 75 per cent of our households in Wales and that it's proportionately targeted at those in most need, as it should be, with almost twice as much going to households in the bottom half of income distribution compared to those in the top half, and three times as much to those in the bottom fifth compared to those in the top fifth. This is very welcome, First Minister. Could you reassure me today that Welsh Government will continue to follow the principles of social justice in supporting communities in Newport East and across Wales and continue to press UK Government to move away from their traditional regressive approach and adopt a fair set of policies for the future, given the scale of this crisis?

Well, Llywydd, I thank John Griffiths for that. I think it was the Institute for Fiscal Studies that concluded that the package of help that the UK Government is providing in England contains little direct targeting of resources on the poorest or those most in need. And John Griffiths is right, Llywydd, that the package of help provided here in Wales, which is the most extensive package of help available in any of the four UK nations, is targeted so that most of the help goes to those people at the bottom end of the income distribution. And, of course, that is entirely what we will continue to do.

I've had discussions this week with my colleague Jane Hutt about the £200 winter fuel payment and how we can extend that for the winter that will begin later this year. I was very pleased to see, Llywydd, that the £150 that is being paid not simply to those people who pay council tax but to those people who are exempt from council tax because they qualify for council tax benefit—that's something that doesn't happen across our border—that those payments are already being made: 138,000 households have already received that £150 in Wales; £6 million put into the hands of residents of Cardiff alone since the start of this month. That, I think, is just a clear demonstration of the way in which we want the £380 million that the Welsh Government has been able to secure to go into the pockets of those who need it the most and to do it as rapidly as possible. We rely on our colleagues in local government to help us to make sure that happens, and I'd like to congratulate Newport county borough council, Llywydd, for the £100,000 that it has found from its own budget to support foodbanks in the city—again, a service we wish was not needed but will become an even more necessary part of the landscape as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.

Just quickly, First Minister, it's Newport City Council, not borough council. First Minister, at the moment our constituents are all facing a worldwide cost-of-living crisis, where bills are only expected to rise in the coming months. The UK Government has been working hard to ensure that more support than ever is reaching the pockets of our hard-working people of Wales. You had the audacity in a previous question to stand here and say that you're unhappy with the UK Government and how it's been spending its money helping the people of Wales on a local level. With respect, that is rich, First Minister. Just think of all the millions that you wasted on an M4 relief road, the much-needed relief road that was scrapped, and whilst you were waiting, deciding whether you wanted it or not, the millions that you wasted that could have gone back to the pockets of the hard-working people of Wales—. Instead of helping the people of Wales, all you can concentrate on at the moment is spending millions more pounds on more politicians for here in the bay and a tourism tax. Is this really all your Government has to offer the people of Wales at a time when everyone is struggling? To me, it seems your priorities are all wrong. 

Well, it's pretty desperate stuff, Llywydd, isn't it? I look forward to seeing the Member back on her feet in two weeks' time, when she can comment on the audacity of people in Wales who will be going to the ballot paper to cast their verdict on her Government. Let's see what she has to say about it then.