Thank you very much, Mark Isherwood. I would be very surprised, as chair of the cross-party group on fuel poverty, if you did not recognise the deepening of the cost-of-living crisis and the failure of the UK Government to address these issues with their tax and welfare powers. It's just in terms of recognising, as I've said, that the UK Government holds the primary levers for the tax and benefits system.

Welsh Ministers have repeatedly called on UK Ministers to introduce a lower price cap for low-income households, and I got that support from energy providers I met, to ensure they're able to meet the costs of energy needs now and in the future. No response from the UK Government. We also have asked for them to introduce a significant increase in the rebate paid through schemes such as the Warm Homes discount and winter fuel schemes. We've asked them to remove all social and environmental policy costs from household energy bills and meet these costs from general taxation. We've asked for the £20 uplift in universal credit to be restored, but crucially important, and this is where it does lie, the responsibility, in Downing Street, they should uplift, uprate benefit payments for 2022-23 to match inflation instead of using the September 2021 consumer price index figure of 3.1 per cent. Inflation is now 9 per cent and rising.

I won't spend time today actually quoting what other countries are doing, certainly in the EU, which is a great deal more than this UK Government, but look to France, Italy and Germany. Germany is introducing subsidies for low-income households, spending an extra €15 billion on fuel subsidies, cutting petrol and diesel taxes, providing people with one-off payments, extra childcare support, public transport discounts. Those are the sorts of measures that we should be seeing from the UK Government.

But I'm glad that you do welcome the announcement I made on Friday. There is a full written statement, of course, that came out on Friday, Mark, and you will know that I launched this in Wrexham. I launched it in in Wrexham because the figures show people on prepayment metres in north Wales have been the hardest hit in the UK by rising standing charges. In fact, the First Minister commented on that in his questions. Costs are increasing in north Wales by 102 per cent, the highest in the UK, and standing charges for people on prepayment metres in south Wales have risen by 94 per cent, the fourth highest in Britain.

Now, we're doing this with the Fuel Bank Foundation. They have already engaged—we heard earlier on about some foodbanks, including Blaenau Gwent, which I visited and met the fuel foundation, and also in north Wales, in Wrexham, where there are eight centres. There are eight centres—eight centres—for the Wrexham foodbank, and they've already, with funding previously from the Welsh Government for tackling winter pressures, been actually providing these fuel vouchers. Now, the whole of Wales will be benefiting, and it is important that, as you see in the written statement and response to your questions, nearly 120,000 people—it was in my statement—will be eligible for approximately 49,000 vouchers to support them during the cost-of-living crisis.

Now, the heat fund is important too. It'll provide direct support to eligible households living off the gas grid, reliant on oil and liquid gas. I've already said in my statement it should help up to 2,000 households in Wales. I think it would be very helpful, actually, if Mark, as chair of the cross-party group on fuel poverty, could invite the fuel bank heat fund perhaps to one of your cross-party group meetings, because they're now fully engaged and a partnership—[Interruption.] Good, good. Well, I'm very glad to hear that. So, what is clear to us is that we have to work in partnership—in answer to your questions—with the third sector. National Energy Action joined the meeting I had with energy providers only two weeks ago. Citizens Advice is obviously crucial. When I met with Wrexham foodbank volunteers, and the Fuel Bank Foundation, they were saying one of the most important points about visiting a foodbank—and there are many other food initiatives that are very important—is it starts to signpost people to other support, to be able to claim for other benefits. People with prepayment meters are the most susceptible to rising costs and increased standing charges, and those who are not connected to the mains gas network, as I said last week, are suffering from rising fuel costs and being forced into fuel poverty, with approximately one in 10 households reliant on heating oil in Wales. But I can assure you, in terms of engaging at community level and, indeed, in terms of those national charities and campaign groups, they were all involved in our cost-of-living summit last February and then forward into the food poverty summit, and the summit that we're going to have, they'll be invited to again, in July.

You did ask—and I'll finish on this point—an important point about the payment of the council tax cost-of-living payment. It's being provided, as everyone knows, to council tax bands A to D, and, indeed, to those who already have accounts. It is going directly into their accounts, and I'm sure all the Members will be aware of people saying, 'It's gone into my account.' Those who don't have accounts, which is your question, it is the responsibility of the local authority to explore, to find out from that particular benefit recipient for the £150, the best way to make that payment, and that's being monitored very carefully by the Minister for Finance and Local Government, and indeed my own officials. But the payments that are being made extensively across Wales will continue to be paid and we will continue to address those to ensure that they claim what's theirs. Indeed, that's why we can ensure—as our £200 winter fuel support payment and then the £150 payment—indeed, this is where we can get money straight to people, and the fuel voucher now is one more step on the way in terms of helping people face this horrendous cost-of-living crisis, which was made in Downing Street, I would still maintain.