Lost – one poverty minister’s post

Last week’s surprise Welsh Cabinet reshuffle brought a drop – by one – in the number of cabinet posts. The one that went was the Deputy Minister for Tackling Poverty, with the new arrangements wrapping up poverty with housing, communities and regeneration under Lesley Griffiths. But although the post has gone, the problem has definitely not – poverty in Wales is at its highest for more than a decade and is set to rise.

So what are we to make of the change?

There’s been no obvious re-ordering of Welsh Government priorities – the First Minister, as well as  ministers for health, education and (until last week) regeneration continue to claim that “tackling poverty is the number one priority”, and “tackling poverty” remains a key theme in the Programme for Government.  Many saw the deputy minister post and the various structures that went with it, such as the Implementation Board, as an expression of that priority. Whether there will be the same focus without a deputy minister remains to be seen.

At the same time the “tackling poverty” post drew attention to an aspect of Wales’ society that wasn’t particularly positive.  It’s fuelled Conservative jibes about Wales’ prosperity as well as its education and health care.  In the run up to an election ‘poverty’ might not be a problem the Welsh Government wants to wear on its sleeve. 

But there’s more than that.

The deeper significance of this bit of the reshuffle is that poverty is firmly located with housing and communities, whereas before housing sat along with local government.  It reflects and reinforces the widely-held view that poverty is all about place, and that those places are the ones highlighted in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation and in social housing. 

Well yes, a lot of social housing tenants and people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are ‘poor’. But they are by no means the only people to have low incomes and limited opportunities.  And most importantly, improving their housing and communities is only a small part of the solution.  Even if the new Minister could perform a miracle and eradicate poverty in all Communities First areas, Wales would still have a poverty problem – admittedly a slightly smaller one, but still poverty and still a problem. 

‘Tackling poverty’ – or rather ‘reducing poverty’ – really has to be a priority across all portfolios, including the economy, health and education. If it really is ‘number one priority’ as the First Minister has said so many times, without any disrespect to Lesley Griffiths, perhaps it should be in the First Minister’s portfolio. 

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation.  Why not keep up to date with the Bevan Foundation’s activities by signing up to our free e-newsletter every month.