Bevan Foundation welcomes Welsh Government’s increased investment in solving poverty

The Welsh Government has published its Draft Budget for 2020/21. Whilst there is still some uncertainty as to the final budget settlement given the recent UK general election, the Bevan Foundation welcomes the Welsh Government’s increased spending on solutions to poverty in its Drafts Budget.

In August 2019 the Bevan Foundation published its report, Putting Poverty at the centre of the Welsh Government’s 2020/21 budget. We are pleased to see that the Welsh Government has taken a number of the steps we recommended in the report. Amongst the policies that have been adopted by the Welsh Government have been –

• An increase of £48m in social housing grant funding
• A further £14m for further education colleges
• The provision of an extra £2.8m in school holiday hunger provision, more than half of the £4.75m increase in investment called for by the Bevan Foundation in our Kids on the breadline: solutions to holiday hunger report.

In addition to the calls we made in our Putting Poverty at the centre of the Welsh Government’s 2020/21 budget report, the Bevan Foundation welcomes the Welsh Government’s decision to increase its spending on the Pupil Development Grant and Pupil Development Grant Access, and its investment in a free breakfast allowance pilot, amongst other steps outlined in the budget.

Whilst welcoming these steps the Bevan Foundation believes that there is more that the Welsh Government could do. This includes increasing the funding available for Free School Meals to ensure no child living in poverty in Wales misses out on support, and to increase funding for the child care offer to ensure that all children in Wales are provided with support early in life, not just those whose parents are in full time work. We will continue to campaign on these and other matters over the coming year.