Welsh Conservative spokesperson for Communities, Mark Isherwood AM, has challenged the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children in the Chamber this week over high poverty levels in Wales.
Mr Isherwood referred to the fact that the Bevan Foundation’s July 2016 ‘Equality and Social Justice Briefing’ on poverty said that the latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions’ Households Below Average Income survey showed that low household incomes continue to be a significant problem in Wales, with more than one in five people living on a household income below 60 per cent of the median, and children being at the greatest risk of poverty, although the largest group of people on low incomes being adults of working age.
He said: “They added that the longer-term and more recent trends in poverty have had little impact on Wales’s position compared to other UK nations and regions, with Wales continuing to have one of the highest rates of poverty in the UK for all age groups. Why is that, Cabinet Secretary?”
In his response the Secretary failed to answer Mr Isherwood’s question.
Mr Isherwood added: “May I suggest that you and your colleagues have been running economic development and employability programmes in Wales since 1999, and that is the situation now? Your department, I believe, is responsible for the Lift Programme, as part of your Tackling Poverty Action Plan, providing training and employment opportunities for people in households where no-one is in work. And I believe you’re also responsible for the Communities for Work programme, focusing on the most deprived communities, which clearly falls within your portfolio.
“And you’re also extending both programmes from 2018 to 2020. What due diligence have you carried out? I understand the Welsh Government has been unable or unwilling to release data on the outcome from those programmes, and it’s understood that, by contrast, the UK Government Work Programme providers in Wales have been able to achieve five to 10 times better value for money, delivering the average cost of a job at £3,000, whereas it’s understood that the cost of jobs under your schemes is running into possibly tens of thousands of pounds.”
“The situation in Wales on the latest figures is that we have higher economic inactivity rates than England, Scotland or UK levels. We have the second highest percentage of people in work living below the living wage (out of the 12 UK nations and regions). We have the highest levels of underemployment in the UK, according to the latest figures from the Carnegie UK Trust. We have the highest percentage of employees not on permanent contracts, and the second highest proportion of employees on zero-hours contracts, again after 17 and a half years of Labour Government in Wales. Why is that, Cabinet Secretary?”
The Secretary replied: “Can I say that rebuilding communities, as I said earlier on, doesn’t go on a switch? You have to work at this, and we’ve been working very hard.”