Shadow Social Justice Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has warned that people in Wales will be hit harder by surging living costs across the UK because of the country’s existing high poverty rate and low wages.
Speaking in yesterday’s Senedd debate on the Cost of Living, Mr Isherwood supported a motion calling on the Welsh Government to publish an emergency cost-of-living action plan to tackle the pressures caused by the twin problems of surging costs and stagnating wages.
He said this was particularly necessary in Wales given that the December 2018 Joseph Rowntree report on UK poverty stated that ‘of the four countries of the UK, Wales has consistently had the highest poverty rate for the past 20 years’, and that their November ‘Poverty in Wales’ report stated ‘Wales has lower pay for people in every sector than the rest of the UK’.
Calling for an action plan, he said:
“As figures today show, soaring food costs and the energy bill crisis are driving consumer prices up at their fastest rate in 30 years, with UK Consumer Price Inflation at 5.4% last year. Of course, this is not restricted to the UK and inflation has risen in economies across the world, for example hitting 6.2% in the US last October.
“Those of us who remember inflation and its consequences in the 1970s and 80s know that it is an economy and jobs killer, with devastating impacts on household budgets, and understand that this must be tackled, that massive liquidity injections to power us through choppy waters will therefore no longer be available, and that tighter fiscal policy normally follows, including further Central Bank interest hikes, although this will also need global responses to supply pressures.
“Although UK inflation is expected to fall back later this year, it is not expected to drop to the Bank of England’s 2% target until 2023. I note that the UK Chancellor had stated today that he understands the pressures people are facing and will continue to listen to people’s concerns, as he has done throughout the Pandemic, adding that the UK Government was already providing support worth £12 Billion this financial year and the next to help families cope.
“Regrettably, people in Wales are particularly exposed. In 4 months’ time, Labour will have been running Wales for a quarter of a century. The December 2018 Joseph Rowntree report on UK poverty stated that ‘of the four countries of the UK, Wales has consistently had the highest poverty rate for the past 20 years’.
“Last November’s Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Poverty in Wales’ stated that ‘Wales has lower pay for people in every sector than the rest of the UK’ and that ‘even before Coronavirus almost a quarter of people in Wales were in Poverty’. Research carried out for the UK End Child Poverty Coalition published last May found that Wales had the worst child poverty rate of all the UK nations. And Official statistics show that successive Labour Welsh Governments have failed to close the gap between the richest and poorest parts of Wales – and between Wales and the rest of the UK – despite having spent billions entrusted to them to tackle this on top-down programmes which did not do so.”
He added:
“A Welsh Government action plan should not only include steps to help vulnerable households facing higher costs, especially when the Energy Price Cap is lifted, but also detail how it will at last work hand in hand with business, to create the conditions for a high wage, high skilled economy, and how it will at last develop a systemic, community-led strategy for tackling deprivation and promoting social justice.”