Latest poverty stats show why Wales needs a Plaid Cymru Government
Carrie Harper, Plaid Cymru candidate for Fflint Wrecsam at next year’s Senedd Election
The release of the latest Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) stats is a timely reminder that too many Welsh communities have been repeatedly failed by successive London based parties both at the Senedd and in Westminster.
The stats set out relative deprivation levels across almost 2000 areas, with many stubbornly remaining in the top 50 for decades.
The data considers a range of factors such as housing, employment, income and health. An area of Rhyl in Denbighshire topped the list, with Blaenau Gwent being the local authority with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods classed as the most deprived.
Child poverty in Wales is also at the shameful level of 32% and is increasing, with the vast majority of children experiencing poverty living in households where one or more adults are in work.
Queensway ward in Caia Park, Wrecsam, is the area I represent as a councillor for Plaid Cymru. Queensway has consistently been in the top 10 for the WIMD stats and has some of the highest levels of child poverty in Wales.
In the latest stats it ranks at number 7, with many families seeing their struggles compounded by the cost of living crisis.
I’ve lived in Caia Park all my life and brought my children up here. The ward I represent is around 70% council housing and as the only county councillor in Wrecsam renting a council property myself, I have a unique insight into the everyday reality of these stats.
The people reflected in them are my friends and family as well as my constituents.
My community undoubtedly makes up for in a rich community spirit what it lacks in terms of wealth but people here deserve better. They deserve opportunities, they deserve a better quality of life and they need representatives who will fight for it at all levels.
It’s simply unacceptable to entertain the prospect of so many of our communities up and down Wales languishing with these sorts of stats for another 20 years. We have to relentlessly work on the solutions to ensure we lift families out of poverty now and for the benefit of generations to come. This isn’t, and should not be, as good as it gets.
Poverty is not inevitable, tackling it is a political choice and it’s one that successive London based parties have failed to prioritise.
Target
Back in 2016, Labour in Wales scrapped its target to eradicate child poverty by 2020 when it became clear they would fail. They currently have no concrete measurable target for reducing poverty in place. Labour have failed communities like mine.
The area that tops the WIMD stats is in Rhyl. It literally looks out on to windfarm projects like Gwynt y Môr.
The Welsh seabed is leased out by the Crown Estate, who extract millions in profits annually from Wales and send them direct to the UK Treasury and the Royal family. It’s obscene that the most deprived area of the country is literally looking on as the wealth from Welsh resources is extracted out into the pockets of the wealthy across the border and beyond.
Plaid Cymru have of course demanded that management of the Crown Estate be devolved to Wales as is the case in Scotland so our communities can benefit, only to be blocked in Westminster by Labour, the Tories and Reform.
The truth is that tackling poverty in Wales is simply not a priority but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Scottish Child payment
There is only one country in the UK where levels of child poverty are falling and are projected to fall in the coming years. That country is Scotland and it’s due to the introduction of a Scottish Child payment by the SNP Government in 2021.
It’s a weekly payment for low-income families with a child under 16. It’s a clear example of a policy that works and it’s why Plaid Cymru has pledged to introduce a similar child payment scheme called ‘Cynnal’ post May 2026 should we form the next Welsh Government.
Without an intervention like this, by 2029, child poverty is set to rise to 34.4% in Wales, which would be the highest rate of all UK nations.
It’s not the only solution we’re putting on the table. At our recent conference Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth unveiled a new universal childcare offer for children from the age of 9 months to 4 years. At full rollout, it will be the most generous government-funded childcare programme anywhere in the UK. The offer will be worth more than £30,000 to Welsh families in the first four years of their child’s life. It’s a game-changing intervention and will have a multi-generational impact.
Free school meals
These policies follow on from the free school meals policy put forward and secured by Plaid Cymru during the current Senedd term. It has to date served 50 million school meals across the country. If we can deliver this level of impact in opposition, just imagine what we can do in Government.
Of course issues like good quality affordable housing, health and education are all also key components to tackling poverty. Our upcoming manifesto will be looking closely at all of them.
Ultimately, poverty levels in Wales will change when we have a party in charge that makes it a priority to change them.
In May next year we have the chance to put that party in the driving seat for the first time. Plaid Cymru has a plan to deliver for Wales and our communities need it now more than ever.
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how would plaid help the welsh economy? genuine question.
From the article it’s obviously all about free handouts, oblivious to the economy.
Childcare should be linked to employment, with free transport for the 3 miles to Wrexham Industrial Estate and it’s hundreds of employment vacancies.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t expect a Plaid Government to have substantially more success in this area, not necessarily their fault, simply that it’s something which the devolved settlement is not really well equipped to deal with. Child Poverty as defined for these purposes is actually a measure of income inequality between the bottom and average earners so nothing good or bad will actually reduce measured poverty unless that gap is closed (for instance a policy that benefits everyone won’t reduce measured poverty) and there isn’t too many policy levers that directly influence that. For instance, funded child care whilst a useful… Read more »
When I read the article, I felt cynical as well. But they intend to use this as a pilot project. Maybe it won’t work, but maybe it also makes a big impact to a particular cohort. It’s far better to not just sit back and let fate happen – trying new things that have been thought through is good policy. In my view Ms Harper will make a big impact nationally if elected next year. Good luck to her. This is a policy everyone in Wales would want to see work out for the better.
Yeah that’s a fair point. And of course just because a policy isn’t transformative on one indicator doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. Like free school meals, that doesn’t actually reduce poverty statistically, but it does help people and is on that measure at least, worth doing.
I just worry a little sometimes that if Governments tie themselves too much to specific indicators because they are simple or eye catching then failure to meet them might unfairly mask over good things that have been achieved.
Its all part of that mindset of having more children than you can afford and then shouting poverty and asking others who, given the costs, may have rationally limited themselves to less children to effectively subsidise other peoples kids as these kids have less. Funds go to individuals rather than general society then or debt reduction (I live in hope for my kids too, carrying this trillion pound burden…). The way to tackle this is to improve opportunity, improve mindsets and improve the economy, not drag everyone down. THIS should be the focus.
Most parents don’t shout poverty any more so than the richest keep complaining about school uniform costs. The problem is that the minimum wage doesn’t cover the cost of living. Yet somehow, CEOs, executives and certain shareholders seem to get bumper payouts year after year.
Two people on minimum wage should easily be able to cope – c £46k PA – and especially given the existing top ups and support. I share disdain for CEO’s etc on huge salaries for public services like utilities or council leaders earning more then the PM but private companies create wealth and employment not suck it and waste it. And there is choice to use them too. Many mindsets need to change from handouts to making pragmatic life decisions. Taking responsibility rather than passing it….
When the rich complain, it’s about spending money that they, themselves have earned through hard work and risk-taking – which describes the overwhelming majority.
If the rich get rich by hard work and risk-taking why all the fuss over IHT?
Wouldn’t it be better to dial IHT to 100% and put the mean and unfair “trustafarian” stereotype to bed so everyone knows the rich are genuinely rich through hard work and risk-taking.
The state has always subsidised everyone’s kids. Universal child benefit, vat free clothing and free education just to name a few examples. Because there needs to be enough people to pay for all the olds.
‘Its all part of that mindset of having more children than you can afford and then shouting poverty and asking others who, given the costs, may have rationally limited themselves to less children to effectively subsidise other peoples kids …’ You overlook the hard fact that in order to maintain the population at its present level, each – theoretical and average! – woman needs to be having something between 2.1 and 2.2 children over her lifetime. That allows for the inevitable reality that, for whatever reason, some women are going to have no children at all. Whereas at present the… Read more »
Maintaining a population is irrelevant, maintaining a working, taxpaying, law abiding population is crucial. This very estate created a racist mob that petrol bombed police for merely trying to maintain law and order, as with other benefits funded council estates from Mayhill in Swansea to Ely in Cardiff. I doubt many of these pay a penny in income tax, let alone care for others considering their attitude towards our emergency services. Those who have made a mess of their lives or given where they live a bad name, do not care a jot about our country other than them getting… Read more »
Gwynedd Council has had plaid control for years, however they continue to alienate new commerce from coming to the North West of Wales with their ridicules anti everything policies.
They don’t give a damn about Gwynedd general population, they are just interested in their own nationalist agenda.
Having all my early life (up to 19 years of age) I lived in council housing including on Lansbury Park in Caerphilly and Trowbridge Estate in Cardiff. My father was a painter and decorator, he was out of work as much as he was in it. Benefits were a central part of our family life as was free school meals, but there are opportunities – education being a primary one.