2. What is the Government doing to address poverty? OQ58491

We will be spending £1.6 billion on targeted cost-of-living support and universal programmes to tackle poverty and to put money back in people's pockets. A new cost-of-living Cabinet committee, chaired by the First Minister, has been set up to focus Welsh Government efforts on supporting people through the cost-of-living crisis.

Thank you for the answer, Minister.

It's been five years since a decision was taken to close Communities First, the Government's anti-poverty programme. Following this decision, the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee produced a report, which recommended, and I quote,

'a clear tackling poverty strategy is published, which brings together the many strands of poverty reduction work to help provide clear direction and to help the Assembly scrutinise the Government's approach.'

It also recommended that performance indicators be embedded within the strategy. We are the only UK nation where child poverty has been found to be increasing. Thanks to the Tories in Westminster, poverty is set to get much worse. Why are we still waiting for an anti-poverty strategy in Wales, when it's needed more than ever?

Thank you very much, Peredur. Of course, that report by the former equality and local government committee was an important report, with recommendations that we agreed to take forward. And I hope that you were able to see the report that was produced, which we commissioned—it's a review from the Wales Centre for Public Policy—to understand the best levers and means that we have to address poverty in Wales, clearly, as so many of the tax and benefits policies, which have such an impact on poverty, are so key. The report was actually published last week, and I hope you will have seen that. And I think what was interesting about the report is that it had four key areas that we are focusing on and mobilising a Wales-wide response in terms of tackling poverty. And the first one is reducing costs and maximising income. Now, I won't go into all of the responses in that report, because it looked at evidence from across the world—it included the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, the London School of Economics, the New Policy Institute—to ensure that we can, with our powers and levers, make the right decisions in tackling poverty in Wales. But I do believe that the focus at the moment is on the cost-of-living payments and what we're going to do in terms of, as you say, the assault on the poorest people in Wales as a result of the UK Government's most recent so-called mini budget.

Would the Minister agree that outcomes are what matters, and Wales, sadly, has the worst child poverty rate of all the UK nations? To add to this picture, I'm sure you're aware of a recent report by Loughborough University that  showed child poverty in Wales had risen by 5 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21. On the other hand, the picture in the UK as a whole is a 4 per cent drop. So, why is this Welsh Labour Government continuing to fail so miserably when it comes to tackling child poverty?

Well, you know perfectly well that the key levers for tackling poverty are powers over the tax and welfare system, which sit with the UK Government. [Interruption.] Can I just remind the Member that child poverty fell year after year under the Labour Government—year after year under the Labour Government—thanks to Gordon Brown's intervention? Tax credits, interestingly, he said—. He introduced tax credits. Now, Joe Biden—[Interruption.] Can I speak, please?

Yes. The Minister needs to be heard, rather than discussions between backbenchers. Can we hear the Minister, please?

Can I just say that tax credits, in terms of the UK Government responses, are crucial in terms of tackling poverty? Joe Biden's doing that now and actually making an impact in the States. Child poverty came down under a Labour Government; child poverty has risen under both the coalition and Tory Governments, and through direct and deliberate policies, including the ones that I've just addressed with Huw Irranca-Davies. It's shameful about the benefit package, it's shameful about the two-child limit, it's shameful that they're not committing today to uprating benefits in line with inflation.