Diolch. We support the contents of this motion. Speaking here in 2019 in support of a motion calling on the Welsh Government to produce a tackling poverty strategy, budget and action plan, I noted the statement by the Children's Commissioner for Wales then that

'Welsh Government has a Child Poverty Strategy which outlines its long-term ambitions, but at the moment there’s no clear plan', and,

'Welsh Government should write a new Child Poverty Delivery Plan, focusing on concrete and measurable steps'.

I also quoted the finding by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that

'poverty and deprivation still remain higher in Wales than other British nations', and the statement by Oxfam Cymru,

'It’s not the case that anti-poverty strategies don’t work; it’s about how those strategies are targeted.' 

To be clear, child poverty in Wales has been rising since 2004, when I first raised this with the Welsh Government. It had already reached the highest level in the UK before the credit crunch in 2008, the year it rose to 32 per cent in Wales. Latest figures show that 34 per cent of children in Wales are living in poverty, whilst the UK figure fell to 27 per cent. The primary reason for this remains that Wales has had the lowest growth in prosperity per head out of the UK nations since 1999, that Wales has the lowest employment rate in Great Britain, and that pay packets in Wales are the lowest amongst UK nations. And all this despite having received billions in supposedly temporary funding, designed to support economic development and reduce inequality between nations and regions.

The Welsh Government's child poverty progress report, conveniently published last night, states that the UK Government continues to hold the key levers to tackle poverty, revealing, once again, a mindset focused only on treating the symptoms rather than tackling the causes, and dodging the reality that the Welsh Government has been responsible for matters including economic development, education, skills, housing, health and social services in Wales for almost 24 years. It is silly to simply deflect blame by claiming that austerity was a political choice. The Welsh Government endlessly demanding more money could learn from Denis Healey, Alistair Darling and, yes, Liz Truss, you can't buck the markets. 

By 2010, the UK budget deficit was the worst in the G20, behind only Ireland and Greece in the European Union. Dublin had to ask for a rescue package worth €85 billion from the EU, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for austerity measures. After initially trying to buck the markets, Greece had to implement severe austerity measures as part of an EU, ECB and IMF rescue deal. The Labour UK Government's March 2010 UK budget statement recognised that the scale of the deficit meant the UK didn't have enough money, with Chancellor Alistair Darling admitting that Labour's planned cuts in public spending would be deeper and tougher than in the 1980s.

Austerity was therefore inherited by the UK Government in 2010, and failure to reduce the deficit risked bigger imposed cuts. As every borrower knows, you cannot reduce debt until income exceeds expenditure, and the UK Government had almost eliminated the deficit when COVID-19 hit. Without this, the UK could not have raised the £300 billion borrowed to see us through the pandemic. Given that current inflation rates are higher in 23 European countries and 16 of the 27 EU member states than in the UK, with today's news hopefully showing that the UK peak is over, that the IMF has forecast that half of the eurozone countries at least are heading for recession, and that the UK's central bank interest rates are lower than in many major economies, only a very silly billy would claim that the current cost-of-living crisis was made in Westminster. Despite the UK Chancellor's need to address the gap between projected public finances and the requirement to reduce debt as a share of GDP, the UK Government has taken a range of measures to help alleviate cost-of-living pressures. I move amendment 2 accordingly.

We now need a Welsh Government child poverty strategy, focused on concrete and measurable steps, and including a coherent and integrated Welsh benefits system, incorporating all the means-tested benefits it has responsibility for. We need real action based upon the Local Trust 'Left behind?' report in England, which evidences that poorer areas with greater community capacity and social infrastructure have better health and well-being outcomes, higher rates of employment and lower levels of child poverty compared to poorer areas without, and a growth plan with the business and third sectors and our communities, to finally build a more prosperous Welsh economy. Diolch.