The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Darren Millar, and amendment 2 in the name of Lesley Griffiths. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected.

We now move to item 11, the Plaid Cymru debate—cost of living. I call on Sioned Williams to move the motion.

Motion NDM8073 Siân Gwenllian

To propose that the Senedd: 

1. Believes that the current increases in energy bills are unsustainable and that they will cause financial strain and hardship on households, businesses, and community groups, whilst fossil fuel companies are making record profits.

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to immediately implement broader cost-of-living emergency measures, such as: 

a) halving rail fares and cap bus fares;

b) working with local authorities to clear some of the significant council tax arrears that have been built up over the course of the pandemic; 

c) a rent freeze; 

d) reinstating measures to ban winter evictions; 

e) expanding the free school meals scheme to secondary school children;

f) increasing the educational maintenance allowance to £45.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The purpose of Plaid Cymru's motion today and our first debate of this new term is to foreground the need for further, immediate and emergency action by the Welsh Government on the cost-of-living crisis to support the Welsh people in the face of hardship described by many who work in the field of poverty as ‘Victorian’. It is of course a crisis, but it is a crisis long in its making—this is no sudden economic earthquake. Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitics and war have of course played their part, as have the cruel Conservative policies of austerity, which have been inflicted on our people by a Westminster Government they didn’t vote for.

The people of Wales are suffering because the main levers and resources that could help protect the families of Wales remain at Westminster, and the measures so far outlined by the Tory Governments in London under Johnson and Truss are, unsurprisingly, wholly inadequate and not sufficiently targeted at those most in need. We must be in no doubt that this is a true emergency. You know the economy is in trouble when even employers of high earners are concerned for their staff. Lloyd's of London will pay an extra £2,500 to staff with a base salary of £75,000 a year to help cover rising living costs.

The increases in energy bills we have seen, which mean that average bills will be at the level of £2,500 a year, are, as the head of National Energy Action Wales, Ben Saltmarsh, succinctly put it when news finally came of some action from Westminster, 'not normal'. Twice what they were a year ago, these bills are completely unsustainable. This is not 'job done'. And it must be remembered also that this is not a cap—this is not a limit on how much your bill will be. Many households will face higher bills than this. If you’re disabled, for example, you will be disproportionately impacted by the rising cost of living because you are more likely to be on a lower income, have higher living costs and need accessible transport, specialist diet and have higher costs for gas and electricity to keep your temperature stable and power essential equipment. And you have no choice on whether to turn that ventilator off or not charge that hoist.

Another group who are being hard hit are our future doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and scientists, learners and students. Heledd Fychan will speak about the need to increase the level of education maintenance allowance to support them. And as Plaid Cymru spokesperson for post-16 education, I want to speak up for the 92 per cent of Welsh students who have told the National Union of Students that they are concerned about their ability to cope financially. Eleven per cent of them are accessing food banks. Student rent has risen 29 per cent in Wales in the last three years and maintenance support is not keeping up with inflation. A rent freeze across all sectors would help address this. Students have also faced a postcode lottery in terms of accessing the cost-of-living council tax rebate because of the inconsistency in the way local authorities have distributed the support. 

The measures already announced by Welsh Government referenced in their amendments are, of course, welcome. Some, like free school meals, will be transformational. But there is much more that needs to be done; some of these are just not going to touch the sides. We heard the First Minister yesterday announce only one new measure, support for warm banks, and insist that efforts must be not on funding new initiatives to tackle this crisis but on maximising the take-up of those currently available. The purpose of our motion, passed before the recess, on making the winter fuel support scheme fit for purpose was to highlight that very vital need for the support available to reach the pockets of the eligible. 

The data published recently in answer to questions from the Equality and Social Justice Committee about the delivery of payments under this scheme, which will be again starting soon, listed payments made by local authority but offered no reference either to the proportion of eligible households taking up the payments or if any of those households had protected characteristics. I would like to know how and when the review of the last round took place, which the Prif Weinidog assured me had happened when I asked him yesterday. What crucial lessons have been learnt in order to ensure help is reaching those in need?

I made it clear earlier that this is no sudden catastrophe. One in three of our children have been living in poverty for the last two decades, the highest of all UK constituent countries, and we were the only UK nation to see child poverty rise instead of fall over the pandemic period. As well as the factors that I've already alluded to, which have contributed to this dire situation, attention must be drawn to the inertia and inadequacy of successive Welsh Governments to tackle shameful levels of poverty, which left Welsh households so vulnerable in the face of the storm that is now upon us. Back in 2009, Victoria Winckler of the Bevan Foundation, in response to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on what was needed to eradicate child poverty by 2020, stated, and I quote:

'The opportunity for the Welsh Assembly Government to seek further legislative powers to tackle child poverty should...be considered.'

Let us remind ourselves that a Labour Government was in power in Westminster at that time. Let us remind ourselves it was said in 2009. The Labour Welsh Government has had the opportunity to create change, yet has dragged their heels. And now, in 2022, our people are facing the hardest winter since our nation has had a Welsh Government to serve and support them. The logical wider conclusion to draw from our motion today is that Wales needs more power to protect its people. Even with all the measures announced, tens of thousands of people in Wales still face a winter going without essentials like food or the ability to wash with hot water, or having to borrow money at increasing interest rates just to meet the rising cost of living. If you acknowledge this crisis, vote for our motion. Vote for our motion if you believe that by passing the set of emergency measures we call for we can ensure people have money in their pockets when they need it and that there are more ways in which the Welsh Government can help the people it is meant to serve in the face of these skyrocketing bills, stagnating wages, cruel cuts to welfare and record increases in food prices and essentials.

This may mean looking again at departmental budgets. I think the scale of the crisis merits that. We are suggesting consideration of wide-ranging steps, many of which other Governments are implementing—capping transport costs, freezing rents, banning winter evictions. Vote for our motion if you agree it is the duty of the Welsh Government to act proportionately to the scale of this crisis, holistically and quickly. My fellow Plaid Cymru Members will outline why we are calling for the specific measures, and it would be good to hear Members' views on these measures and suggestions for further actions that can be taken. I look forward to hearing Members' views and urge you to show your constituents that their Senedd hears them and will support them.

I have selected the two amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected. I call on Peter Fox to move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Darren Millar.

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

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Notes that the UK Government has introduced an energy profits levy.

Welcomes the action taken by the UK Government to tackle the cost of living, including:

a) an energy price guarantee, capping energy costs;

b) cost-of-living payments for those on low income benefits and tax credits worth £650;

c) a disability cost-of-living payment worth £150;

d) monthly reductions in fuel bills from October worth £400;

e) an increase in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour;

f) a reduction in the universal credit taper rate;

g) a freeze on fuel duty;

h) a two year freeze on the TV licence fee;

i) extra winter fuel payments.

Calls on the Welsh Government to work with the UK Government to support people, businesses and the third sector to meet the challenges ahead.

Amendment 1 moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendment tabled in the name of the Member for Clwyd West, Darren Millar. It goes without saying that the past few years have been very difficult—that's an understatement—for families and communities across Wales and beyond, and the cost-of-living crisis is another huge burden facing almost every family that we represent, and I won't be playing party politics within this debate; it's too important. We need action.

However, this is an issue that is not unique to us in Wales. Across the world, countries are grappling with these issues. I met recently with a family from Bavaria, one from France and one from Italy, all facing very similar situations in their own countries, and so this isn't unique to us. And of course, as our amendment describes, the UK Government has introduced a substantial package of measures to date, worth around £37 billion, to help support communities the length and breadth of the country: cost-of-living payments to families, as well as the increase in the national living wage.

I very much welcome the recent energy price guarantee, which we know will cap those average prices to £2,500, where we were frightened that they were going to be moving to £3,500. We know that £2,500 is still a lot more than they would have paid last year and there is more to be done. And I also welcome this morning's announcement that businesses will have their energy bills covered to 50 per cent of their energy costs for six months, and reviewed in three months to see if that can continue. And I know that many people have called for additional windfall tax to help pay for these schemes, but right now we really need companies investing in new green energy supplies to boost our energy security and to prevent such issues from happening again. More could be done, however, to ensure profits are reinvested back into communities.

I also look forward to hearing about the additional measures that the new UK Government is expected to take later this week to help people keep more of their money in their pockets. But, Deputy Llywydd, as I have repeatedly said in this Chamber, more support will be needed over the coming weeks and months, and, collectively, the Welsh and UK Governments, as well as us in the Senedd, need to be working with all partners to introduce support to help people meet any upcoming challenges, and the Welsh Government does need to use all of the financial levers available to it to ensure that people have all of the support they need.

Some of the suggestions raised in the original motion are things that I agree could be looked at during this difficult time: for example, how to limit the cost of public transport, providing support to those in substantial council tax arrears through no fault of their own, and providing help to students and young people from lower income backgrounds. As Sioned said, NUS Wales have pointed out students facing a postcode lottery in terms of accessing council tax rebate, as it has depended on how individual local authorities distributed the support.

But I would also like to see the Welsh Government deliver additional support such as expanding the eligibility of existing schemes to encompass families who normally do not require help, such as those who do not receive benefits. It needs to be made easier for people to receive the help that they need, such as a single point of access and automatic passporting onto schemes for disadvantaged households, whilst the Welsh Government could also look to better support local councils to help families through this crisis, such as working with them to increase the capacity of local support services, as well as easing the ever-increasing burden on council tax.

Finally, there needs to be a more targeted approach, such as help for people facing long-term sickness and those receiving end-of-life care. Some of you who visited the Macmillan event yesterday will have heard how the average person suffering with cancer has an ongoing monthly additional cost of around £800 a month. Surely, then, there needs to be additional support provided to those individuals, such as extending existing discretionary support or perhaps putting things in like free bus passes for those who are affected.

Deputy Llywydd, I know there are different opinions on how best to tackle this crisis, and let's be under no illusion that there is no silver bullet to end this, but my hope is, by working constructively together, we can help reduce the strain on people and businesses and, eventually, overcome this terrible crisis. Thank you.

I call on the Minister for Social Justice to move formally amendment 2, tabled in the name of Lesley Griffiths.

Amendment 2—Lesley Griffiths

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Believes the UK Government is failing to grasp the severity of this crisis and that it would allow working people to cover the cost of an energy cap instead of taxing the record profits of gas and oil producers.

Welcomes the £1.6bn invested in targeted cost-of-living support and universal programmes which put money back in people’s pockets provided by the Welsh Government this financial year, including:

a) extending the £200 Winter Fuel Support Payment to 400,000 households this winter;

b) rolling out universal primary free school meals from September 2022;

c) investing £51.6m in the Discretionary Assistance Fund to provide an emergency lifeline for people in severe financial crisis;

d) £4m to fund fuel vouchers to help people on pre-payment meters and a fuel bank for people not on mains gas.

Amendment 2 moved.

Formally.

Crises don't abate when it's inconvenient for them to be continuing. If we ignore them, they don't go away, and the cost-of-living crisis is not a crisis that has paled in significance, as one broadcaster put it, because of the events of the past week, nor had the turmoil and panic felt by people across the UK been put on hold when the Westminster Government put itself on hold over the summer. No, crises are all-consuming.

People talk about the winter of discontent, but what we've had in this all-consuming crisis mode is a summer of disregard, of indifference being shown by those in power, of an absent Cabinet, of one tarnished Prime Minister handing power to another who is completely untested and who refused for months to tell us how she would deal with this crisis.

But now, at last, we know how Truss plans to keep the most desperate people alive over winter, unless, of course, they happen to have the misfortune of being on pre-payment meters or being off the gas grid. Bills for everyone else will be frozen at an agonising level that will push people into excruciating debt. Destitution, real destitution is just at the door for thousands.

If the price cap is not brought back down to pre-April levels as we have advocated, people will die avoidable deaths. That really is what we're talking about here, and not only is this cap too high, the way that Truss has determined it will be funded is underhanded. Energy firms who've made billions in excess, unearned profits will keep those profits. They won't face an extra tax on them. Instead, taxpayers will subsidise the bills. We'll keep paying through the nose, just drawn out over a longer period. The wealth at the top, that avaricious, immoral wealth, stays intact, untouched, untapped by people at the bottom.

Is it any wonder that people say, 'Enough is enough'? Enough of this topsy-turvy system where Westminster favours the short-term fixes of fracking just to keep this moment in time and that glut of money fixed for the shareholders, those murky money makers that nobody sees, with no thought given to the future, the skies they're clogging, the earth they are poisoning. They failed to keep the stocks of gas we need because of this obsession with the here and now, maximising the money while the good times roll, with scant concern for what happens when the music stops.

How differently might we have fared in Wales had the Swansea bay tidal lagoon been given permission? With powers over energy production, with proceeds from the Crown Estate, how differently might things look if we had a system that invested profits in our collective future, rather than locking them out of reach? Instead, of course the richest households will have twice as much help as the poorest, of course Truss's Cabinet is pouncing on this chance to undermine net zero—anything that keeps that moneyball spilling for the richest. The rest of it, to them, is just white noise.

So, the uproar of dread, the clamour of consternation voiced by millions has never touched them, and they are deaf to the pleas of our planet. But that climate catastrophe, Dirprwy Lywydd, that will not abate while the billionaires get richer either. If we ignore that, it will not go away. Now is the time to bring energy companies into public hands, to invest in green energy, to insulate our homes, to save our planet, fortify our future. Now is the time for radical thinking, bringing down public transport costs, waiving council tax arrears, freezing rents, helping people to stay alive. Because crises are all-consuming, like flames, and if we don't put them out and quickly, the scars they'll leave will never heal.

I'll struggle to follow that, Delyth. It was very good.

I strongly believe that fossil fuel companies and shareholders should not be profiting from the high price of fossil fuel, while households, businesses and public services are suffering such severe hardship. Councils and community groups are looking at setting up warm homes and soup kitchens. How has this been allowed to happen in twenty-first century Britain? The EU is looking at charging 33 per cent tax on profit, and this will mean taking back £140 billion from the energy companies. But rather than a windfall tax, the Tories would rather working people shoulder the burden. One hundred and seventy billion in excess profits, the Treasury predicts, yet the Prime Minister's bailout will cost £150 billion in taxpayers' money, putting the country into further debt for generations to come. Workers are already working long shifts, often unsociable hours for the same pay, impacting on mental health, families and childcare. They have faced the consequences of a race to the bottom over the last decade or more.

The UK Government talks about growing the economy through business and the creation of good, well-paid jobs. Well, there are plenty of vacancies in health and the public sector that they are struggling to fill—jobs that were once well paid. It's time the UK Government started to grow the economy by properly funding our public services. We need them now more than ever. We can then invest in our transport infrastructure, rebuild our NHS and care homes, build zero-carbon social housing and put money back in people's pockets. We had a decent NHS and public services before austerity, but we were told that we had to tighten our belts year after year, shaving 30 per cent each time off social care, education and transport. It is the public sector that stepped in here in Wales to help with the pandemic, and it is the public sector who will have to deliver the grants, help create warm rooms and deliver food for people.

The UK Government blames Putin's war, but the cost-of-living crisis was an issue before then. Food prices have increased significantly because of the poor handling of Brexit. And I note from past debates that, despite a reduction in real-terms funding, the Welsh Government is delivering help to residents twice that it has received from UK Government for that purpose. The fuel vouchers and all the grant funding packages are great, but it's not sustainable; it's bureaucratic and costly to deliver.

I saw a local authority advertising for 12 benefits staff to deliver grant funding on £19,500 a year, which means that they will probably also need benefits—and so the circle continues—and help with heating and food. The energy price cap should not have been raised. The UK Government should have been bold and kept the pre-April price cap of £1,277. We need a real pay rise for workers and a significant uplift in universal credit. And we can do this by taxing the rich 10 per cent. And, Delyth, enough is enough.

I would like to begin just by echoing Sioned Williams's calls. If we're serious about tackling this emergency, then we must support what the proposals are here. And I would like to dispute Peter Fox's assertion that our motion is party political. It isn't. It offers practical steps that we can take here now. If anything is party political, it's your amendment, which lists what the UK Government have been doing, and also, the Labour amendment is also a list of things that have been taken, not additional things we can do, because the steps that have been taken by both Governments aren't going far enough, and there is more we can do. We have to accept that political decisions are responsible for this crisis, and we must take into account that there are things that are within our control here, and the list that we have in our motion should be supported by everybody, if we're acknowledging the scale of the crisis.

Thanks to the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, more pupils are in receipt of free school meals since the beginning of this month, as part of the roll-out of free school meals to all primary school children by 2024. But we should be striving to expand this free school meals scheme to every secondary school pupil too, as a matter of urgency, to help to tackle the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our children and young people, and to tackle child poverty, which is increasingly a problem here in Wales. And as I mentioned yesterday, we must now look at expanding eligibility for free school meals to a wider range of children and young people. As the Welsh Government’s child poverty review found, not all of those who need free school meals receive them.

The Welsh Government has been trying to tackle high levels of poverty in Wales for years, and indeed, it could be argued, since the beginning of this Senedd, and yet the situation is getting worse. I'm sure that a number of us remember the ambition to eradicate child poverty by 2020, after the Welsh Government commissioned in 2003 the child poverty task and finish group to investigate the impacts of severe child poverty in Wales, at a time when one in three children were living in poverty.

Almost two decades later, this figure has hardly changed at all. No council ward anywhere in Wales has a child poverty rate below 12 per cent. And even before the pandemic, around 195,000 children were living in a household below the poverty line. Due to these high rates of child poverty, our children are being disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis. We know that child poverty is causing serious and lifelong harm to children’s outcomes, which worsen the longer a child lives in poverty.

Growing up in poverty and experiencing the related stress and strain leads to adverse childhood experiences, and this will affect an individual throughout their life. It is traumatic for a child to grow up without their needs being met. This is likely to have a negative impact on their mental health, their self-image, self-worth, physical health, education and ensuing career path, as well as the ability to socialise normally and to engage with their contemporaries, and the likelihood that they will be involved in crime, either as a victim or as a perpetrator.

Food prices rose at the fastest rate in August for 27 years. The proportion of people living in households with one or two children that are having to cut back on food has almost doubled since November 2021—since we were elected to this sixth Senedd. Bearing in mind the fact that there is a significant body of evidence demonstrating the effect of poor nutrition during childhood on a child's long-term health outlook, the fact that one in five households with two children is cutting back on food for those children is particularly worrying. We have to do more in this regard.

But, alongside expanding the free school meal provision and support to provide the very best start to every child, we must also look at the education maintenance allowance. This sum has remained at the same level, namely £30 a week, since it was introduced in 2004. For a little under 20 years, it hasn't increased at all, despite costs continuing to increase. We know how vital this payment is, and the difference it makes in terms of young people being able to continue in education or not; for the parents to be able to keep their children in education.

We have to increase the EMA now to £45 per week as part of this emergency package of cost-of-living measures, to ensure that this crisis doesn't have a negative impact on our young people and learners, along with their ambitions and the opportunities available to them. There is more that we could and should be doing, if we are serious about giving the very best start in life to every child in Wales.

Thank you very much to Plaid Cymru. I agree entirely with what Sioned, Delyth and Carolyn have said. Thank you very much.

We are in a really dark and dire situation right now, and we've known about what's coming down the tracks for months. Rather than spend the summer preparing and setting out a really comprehensive package of support to protect people this winter, all we have seen is the UK Conservative Government looking inwards, at itself and its own preservation.

We really can't underestimate the real impact that this crisis will have. I, for one—and I know that there are others here as well—am really, literally terrified about what the next few months will bring to people in my region and across Wales, and we should all be that way. People's lives are at risk, and if the right measures to protect people aren't in place very soon, people will die, as we've heard.

We must ensure that it is those with the deepest pockets and the broadest shoulders—in fact, those same people making unexpected and unfathomable profits—pay the way. Any plan that pushes more people into debt and kicks the can down the road to future generations will just cause long-term pain. Trickle-down economics; well, I’ve learnt something about that. I’ve learnt something about it from Joe Biden yesterday, who said, and I quote,

‘I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked.’

And yet that’s what the UK Conservative Government are going to do. And Peter Fox, with the greatest respect, you say let’s keep party politics out of this. Well, why did your Government take £20 a week from universal credit payments to the poorest of our people? I could spend the entire two and a half minutes that I’ve got left talking about the UK Conservative Government. I’d need a lot longer, actually. But I am going to focus, as has been said, on what are the most practical issues that the Welsh Government can enact to help people here in Wales—transport, debt and housing and homelessness. I do thank Plaid Cymru for setting that out really clearly. Because there’s very little we can do here, but our colleagues over there can do quite a lot about the shameful behaviour of the UK Conservative Government.

But there’s a lot that we can do here in Wales, so let’s start with transport. I have already proposed and called for urgent action on public transport costs, and we debated in January my proposal to introduce free public transport on journeys starting and ending in Wales for under 25-year-olds. We need to see that enacted, and I do know that the Minister will be looking at that. Spain has cut costs on commuter and middle-distance trips from September until the end of the year. Germany has cut all fares to €9, and Luxembourg has made all public transport free since 2020. So, we can do the same in Wales.

Secondly, personal debt. The impact of personal debt is an issue the Equality and Social Justice Committee has previously considered. The 'Debt and the pandemic' report recommended that the Government explore the feasibility of introducing debt bonfires in relation to aspects of public sector debt. This is a key proposal of my party, and I do look forward to the Welsh Government reviewing this and enacting this in the future. I’d also just take this opportunity to very quickly reference back my proposal for an extension to the basic income pilot to include workers in heavy and carbon-intensive work, who are at risk of losing their jobs.

And finally, the rent freeze and private renting. We need to think about housing and homelessness. I do agree that urgent action is needed to protect people who are at risk because of the very nature of being in private rented accommodation. Rapidly rising rents and a failure to act on eviction are the key drivers here. I believe it was absolutely the wrong decision to delay protection for renters against evictions to December, and I do think we have to ask whether the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 is even fit for purpose now, let alone in the future. We need a moratorium on evictions right now.

There will be people out there who decry any intervention in housing, debt or significant public expenditure, or subsidised transport. But we face a social catastrophe if we don’t act. The real question—and I’ll finish on this, Dirprwy Lywydd—is what is the cost of not acting to prevent that catastrophe. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn. 

The crisis facing us is huge. Inflation is at its highest point for 40 years, and has shattered all predictions made by economists. Forecasts show that it will increase even further. Energy prices have increased to totally unsustainable levels for most people, and the increase in that price is reflected in the price of food, transportation and other prices. All this comes on top of decades of salaries failing to keep pace with inflation, 10 years of cruel austerity from the Tories in Westminster, and cuts in the benefits of the most vulnerable.

According to the Bevan Foundation, around 180,000 households here in Wales now can’t afford some of the basics of life: heat, food or hygiene products, never mind luxuries. We are calling this a cost-of-living crisis, but the truth is that it is an affording-to-live crisis. That's the crisis here; people can't afford to live. Put in these terms, we see the crisis for what it really is, namely that capital is prioritised over people's lives. There is plenty of food available, there is plenty of energy available, there are plenty of homes available, but people are dying and are suffering because free-market dogma says that the value of these things is greater than the value of people's lives. That's the reality of the situation. And before too long, this too will be a crisis for the free market as people see that the order isn't working on their behalves, and start to push back. 

In discussing this crisis and the inflation related to it, one central element to all of this that's hardly ever mentioned is the cost of putting a roof over our heads. I've grown tired of having to talk about this in the Chamber time and time again, but rents in Wales have increased more than in any other part of this unequal union, with people on the lowest incomes in Cardiff, for example, paying 35 per cent of their income on rent alone, and rent in this city has increased 36 per cent in just two years. A quarter of private tenants in Wales are concerned that they will lose their homes in the next three months, and this on top of the fact that they have seen huge increases in no-fault evictions already. 

And for those who are evicted or are looking for a home, then the opportunities to find appropriate properties are painfully rare. Today, the Bevan Foundation launched its report on the housing crisis, looking at the rental market in Wales over the last summer, and found, believe it or not, that only 60 properties were available throughout the whole of Wales at the local housing allowance rate, and that there were seven local authorities without a single property available at the LHA level. We know that the waiting list for social housing has increased by almost 50 per cent, and that list is somewhere in the region of 90,000. In light of this, we must take action as a matter of urgency.

I'm pleased that Plaid Cymru's co-operation agreement with the Welsh Government is looking to introduce a White Paper that will include looking at rent caps, but we must take action prior to that. That is why we must look at freezing rents in the short term, and ensure that there is a pot of money available in order to compensate the social housing sector as they look to decarbonise their stock. Freezing rents would also mean that private landlords cannot profit on the back of the suffering of others during this difficult period. I thank Carolyn Thomas for raising this point earlier today, and I know that she speaks on behalf of the Labour movement in Wales in doing that.  

After all, we must bear in mind that the most vulnerable members of our society—those with disabilities, single parents and others—are most likely to go into debt and to fall into rent arrears because of low income levels. Such debts will have impacts on mental health and on the upbringing of children, and therefore taking action to prevent this will be an investment too in saving money for other departments of Government, ultimately. I therefore call on you in the Government to follow the example of the Scottish Government and to freeze rents here in order to enable the most vulnerable to survive this most difficult winter. I call on Members on the Labour backbenches to reject their own Government's amendment, and to keep true to those principles that convinced you to put your names forward as politicians, and support the Plaid Cymru motion today. 

Rhun ap Iorwerth. No.

I call on the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt. 

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Llywydd. Can I start by thanking Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this debate? We've just had a very powerful debate on the Equality and Social Justice Committee report on tackling fuel poverty, and indeed yesterday the First Minister also made a statement on how the Welsh Government is tackling the cost-of-living crisis, and seeing this as a critical priority of this Government. 

People in Wales are facing the biggest fall in living standards since records began. Domestic energy bills have doubled over the last 12 months, and the impacts are being felt right across our economy and our communities, particularly amongst those on the lowest incomes and the most vulnerable, and that's been expressed clearly today. In this financial year alone, we as Welsh Government will be spending £1.6 billion on targeted cost-of-living support and universal programmes to put money back in people's pockets and to help alleviate this crisis. And just yesterday, the First Minister announced those additional three measures we'll implement—on the third 'Claim what's yours' campaign, on warm spaces and on foodbanks.

There's much we have done here in Wales, but we know that the key levers for alleviating this crisis lie with the UK Government, who've allowed this crisis to spiral and whose interventions merely paper over the cracks. The energy price guarantee by the UK Government is needed. However, the reality is that 45 per cent of people in Wales were already likely to be in fuel poverty following the price cap rise in April of this year. That's already been said. There is little in the guarantee to support those who are already impacted by the increasing energy costs.

The Resolution Foundation have predicted that when we take into account the energy price guarantee, and the expected reversal in the previous Tory Government's rise in national insurance contributions—we await Friday's announcement—on average, the richest tenth of households will benefit from these measures by about £4,700 a year while the poorest will receive £2,200, deepening the inequalities that blight people's lives. And as the First Minister said yesterday, the UK Government's decision to use borrowing to pay for the cap instead of a windfall tax on the extraordinary profits made by oil and gas producers consigns us all to a future of higher bills for many years to come.

I agree with Plaid Cymru that current increases in energy bills are unsustainable, and I agree that it's shameful that people in Wales are facing these increases in their bills whilst the fossil fuel companies are making record profits. So, we call on the UK Government, many of us here in this Chamber, to recognise the severity of this crisis on taxpayers, to rethink their approach to covering the cost of energy price caps and to tax the record profits of the oil and gas producers.

I also call on the UK Government to review the benefits system. Jane Dodds made the point about the £20 cut to universal credit last year, and I've also called for the removal of the benefit cap and the two-child limit to support families and to give children the best start in life, and to reconsider the recommendations that were made by the Welsh Affairs Committee for the UK Government to work with the Welsh Government on addressing all of the social security needs and responsibilities in Wales. I have on several occasions in this Senedd stated the Welsh Government's commitment to do everything in our power to support the people of Wales through this unprecedented crisis, and again make this commitment today.

But I have to say also that, as a Government, we're not immune to the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, and just as inflation erodes what individuals and families can purchase, so of course it does the Government too. So, our three-year spending review settlement, which we had from the UK Government last year, is now worth at least £600 million less than it was the time we received it last October, because of the impact of inflation, and this gap is likely to increase when we see the latest Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts, whenever we see them.

But while we recognise the need to act, there are inevitably limits to how far we can go. Unless the UK Government increases public spending—[Interruption.] I think this is something that is so important, because it is about how can we actually reach out and make sure that our £1.6 billion that we've found to target cost-of-living support and universal programmes can actually put money back in people's pockets. And, you know, that does include the £330 million cost-of-living package.

There is one important lever that has been referred to that is in your control, which would make immediate, direct impact upon people's situation, and that would be imposing a rent freeze in the private sector and imposing a moratorium on evictions in the private rental sector. That wouldn't have any fiscal consequences to the Welsh Government but would have huge consequences for many, many families that are struggling at the moment.

Well, I think it is important, as the First Minister did say yesterday on this point, that we actually do have a rent freeze in the public sector here in Wales until the end of March. I mean, these are crucial issues in relation to reaching out in terms of rent issues, which of course we will be addressing. But that rent freeze is in place. I think, just looking at our £330 million cost-of-living package—[Interruption.]

Sorry, will the Minister—? [Inaudible.] I was referring to an imposition of a rent freeze in the private sector. That hasn't been imposed by the Welsh Government yet, has it, and it wouldn't have any fiscal consequences, but it would have huge, beneficial consequences for families. 

Well, I mean, I think this goes back, I say to the leader of Plaid Cymru, to how are we going to get support in order to support our public services, because there is no indication that we're going to get any support from the UK Government on Friday in terms of action to support public services. Actually, of course, that does mean that we're going to have such a corrosive impact on our budgets, including, of course, our local authority budgets, meaning money isn't going to stretch as far as it did.

I mean, I'm sure you would join us as the Welsh Government in calling on the UK Government to uprate funding for public services so that we can address many of these issues and also look at all of the options and opportunities that are coming forward. But, I hope that you will also accept that what we are doing is getting money into the pockets of Welsh citizens: the £150 cost-of-living payment to all households; the £15 million extra in discretionary assistance funds; and, of course, our winter fuel support scheme, that £200 for which we've extended the eligibility widely, as you know. I think it is important—[Interruption.] I won't take another intervention because of timing. It is important that we put on record again that we have extended the eligibility, and obviously, that's going to be really important to reach the 400,000 who could be eligible as the scheme starts on Monday. I hope that you will all be recognising that and sharing that with your constituents because it now includes child tax credits; pension credits, which has been called for across this Chamber; it includes disability living allowance; personal independent payments; attendance allowance; carer's allowance; employment and support allowance and incapacity benefit. This is going to be a Welsh benefit that I hope the whole Chamber will back us in getting this money out.

So, there is a great deal that we're doing in terms of our Welsh benefits system, a single point of access, our benefits charter that we're developing, and also recognising that this is so crucial; it's a critical priority for the Welsh Government. We've established a Cabinet sub-committee on the cost of living, we've met today, and it will serve to strengthen all our interventions, indeed, with our partners. So, where we can, we will do more and explore all options and opportunities. There will be much discussion about this: what can we do and how we will deliver our £1.6 billion precious Welsh Government funding to address the cost-of-living crisis. But, it will be working with local government; it will be working with the third sector; meeting with the Bevan Foundation, as I did this week; Child Poverty Action group; National Energy Action; our commissioners; the Wales TUC. But above all, we continue to call upon the UK Government to use the powers only it has at its disposal to provide the urgent additional support that is needed.

I call on Luke Fletcher to reply to the debate.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to thank the Members and the Minister who contributed to this debate. Today, we've heard lots of stats, figures and accounts that set out the terrifying scale of the cost-of-living crisis, but none of this can truly capture or describe the impact of this deprivation and destitution on those who are experiencing it. More than four in 10 Welsh adults—that's 43 per cent of adults in Wales—have reported that their current financial position has had a negative impact on their mental health, with 30 per cent reporting that their current financial position had had a negative impact on their physical health. Poverty kills. There's no escaping that fact. And, as we head into this winter, I'm absolutely terrified—terrified—knowing what people are going to be facing. Good people. People who do not deserve this. The people I grew up with. The people I care about. Can any of us—any of us—really say that we are representing the people if we do not move mountains to solve this crisis? 

We must act swiftly and radically, and that's why we won't be supporting the amendments tabled by both the Government and the Tories. To be frank, they are no more than self-congratulatory amendments. But here's the reality: patting yourselves on the back just doesn't cut the mustard, because even with all that's being introduced and being done, people are still struggling. Constituents are coming to us daily. One of my constituents had this to say: 'I worked and I worked and I worked throughout the pandemic. The bonus got paid to me as a wage. I lost all of my universal credit. What little of the bonus that was left over has been obliterated by the shocking cost of petrol and food, and all so that I can just keep on working to keep on surviving.' Another: 'We're care workers. We got the social care bonus payment. For us that meant £800 taken from our universal credit and our council tax support stopped. We still have no food, no money, no electricity. We work so hard to take care of people. Is this what help is meant to look like?'

Looking ahead to Friday, it's going to be a point in time for so many—a point in time where they get some peace of mind or nothing at all. And I have to say, I'm not filled with confidence for next Friday. It seems that all we're going to get is the same old free market, liberal economic rubbish that we've always had from that side of the Chamber, which does nothing—absolutely nothing—for working-class people. [Interruption.] Go on.

I've sat here and listened to this debate for the past hour with interest, and just once from Carolyn Thomas I've heard a reference to Vladimir Putin's war against Russia, and especially with the chilling words from the Russian President this morning, stoking war again with Ukraine and creating tensions with the west. So, are you not prepared to make any reference whatsoever to the war between Russia and Ukraine for any of this happening, or are you just going to use the hour to just bash the UK Government?

Okay, well, clearly you weren't listening well enough, Gareth, because Sioned had mentioned that in her contribution. I would just say, stop deflecting all the time. We've seen a Prime Minister advocate for trickle-down economics, tax cuts, removing the cap on bankers' bonuses, and, by the way, no windfall tax at all on energy companies, who are making billions while people see their bills go up—billions, hand over fist, they're making—and instead you expect the people to pay. Get real. For God's sake, get real. I can't take anyone who is still advocating for trickle-down economics seriously at this point. It never worked, and it will never work. 

What I would say to the Welsh Government is, in the face of ever-increasing hostility to working-class people from the UK Government: step up. The Government's response to some of the policies proposed by Plaid have been absolutely shocking. Is this the state of radical socialism in Wales? A reluctance to freeze rent and evictions in the private sector in Wales, where proposals to help people are only met with 'How are you going to pay for them?' That's not the language of socialism. That's the language of the managerial class, of people who have accepted unconsciously, or consciously, the ideology of austerity. To paraphrase, the language of socialism is priorities, and above all else, like many of the Labour Members in this Chamber, to be fair, my priority is the people, and protecting the people from the cost-of-living crisis—the people who thrive when there's a Government who looks out for them, and suffer when there is not. This will be a pandemic of a whole different sort. While the size of the crisis means it is impacting almost everyone in our society, it is absolutely devastating our poorest and most vulnerable.

We have already heard how children and young people in Wales are being disproportionately affected, alongside disabled people and renters. For families with young children where there is just one parent, more than one in four are struggling to afford everyday stuff—not luxuries, everyday essentials.

Will you take an intervention?

Of course.

Would you also agree that probably the thing that's easiest to do and needs to be done immediately is to end standing charges? People are putting £10, which they've taken a week to save up, into the meter, to find out that a quarter to a third of it has already been eaten up by standing charges when they weren't using the energy. That's simple. It shouldn't have to cost the Government anything. They could add it to the cost of energy, but that would help poor people more than anything else.

Da iawn, Mike. Just one more to add to the list of demands that Plaid Cymru are asking for.

I'll finish on this. Jokingly, in a seminar I had in uni with Richard Wyn Jones, he said that perhaps there should be a statue of Thatcher outside the Senedd—I will ask Members to stick with me on this one for the time being. [Laughter.] Thatcher was no doubt a contributing factor to devolution being accepted in Wales and this place being established because of the absolute hell the UK Government put working class people through during her premiership. They didn't have a Senedd then, but we do now. And whilst I would call on the UK Government to pull its finger out, equally I'd say the same to the Welsh Government. If they don't act, the UK Government that is, then all that will protect the people of Wales is this place. Support our calls and let's get on with it. 

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Yes. I will defer voting on this item until voting time. 

Voting deferred until voting time.