7. How is the Welsh Government tackling the cost-of-living crisis in Newport West? OQ59015

Llywydd, people across Wales, including in Newport West, are experiencing the largest and sharpest fall in living standards since records began. This financial year, we will spend £1.6 billion on targeted cost-of-living support and universal programmes to tackle poverty and to leave money in people's pockets.

Diolch, Prif Weinidog. The Federation of Small Businesses has suggested that almost one in four of the UK's small companies could be forced to close, downsize, or restructure, thanks to the UK Government slashing subsidies for companies' energy bills. They have estimated that many small companies will get as little as £50 per year in future Government support, whilst the Resolution Foundation's living standards outlook 2023 suggests that although wholesale energy prices are falling, energy bills will go up again in April, and help with those costs will fall. A typical household will pay £850 more in energy bills in 2023-24 than in the current financial year. In addition to all this, the UK Government refused to reinstate the £20 universal credit uplift, and are shelving important childcare reforms at a time when parents need them the most. Prif Weinidog, would you agree with the conclusion reached by the Resolution Foundation that this UK Parliament is set to be the worst Parliament on record for living standards for almost all parts of the income distribution?

Well, Llywydd, I don't think there is any doubt; I think it's just a statement of fact that living standards will fall in this financial year and next financial year, to an extent that we've never seen before.

Llywydd, I think Jayne Bryant makes two very important points. It sometimes seems to me to a be a bit hidden in the public reporting and discussion of assistance with energy bills the extent to which the UK Government has stood away from the help that is currently available to businesses with those bills. The Federation of Small Businesses estimate that, in the next financial year, a small business will get on average £47 in assistance with their energy bills. The UK Government's own figures say this: that a pub that, at the moment, is receiving £3,100 per month to the end of March, will receive £190 a month from 1 April onwards. But a typical small retail store, which the Government has believed needed £500 a month in support at the moment and up to the end of March, will get £33 a month from then onwards. It's little wonder, then, that the British Chambers of Commerce is predicting that literally thousands of small businesses will go under as a result of that factor alone, and that will undoubtedly affect businesses in Newport West and other parts of Wales. 

As to the broader points that the Member made, the Resolution Foundation's living standards outlook report of last week makes very, very grim reading. A typical household will pay £850 more in energy bills in the next financial year than in the current financial year, with much less help available to them. The average household with a mortgage that needs to renew their mortgage in 2023, will face an annual increase of £3,000 in mortgage costs. No wonder the Resolution Foundation says that living standards will be under pressure this year and next as never before. 

And finally, question 8, Rhianon Passmore.