‘No easy solution’ to poverty

THERE is “no easy solution” to tackling poverty in Wales, a report commissioned by the Welsh Government has found.

The major review has highlighted how the current cost-of-living crisis has deepened long-standing challenges in the country – where almost one in four people lives in poverty.

Academics have now called for a whole public sector response to help those in the nation struggling to make ends meet.

Four key areas have been suggested for the government to focus on, including helping to reduce the cost of household bills, creating access to better paid work and improving public transport links.

Dan Bristow, from the Cardiff University-based Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) – which undertook the work, said: “Attention has rightly been focused on the response to the immediate energy crisis, but now is the time to start planning for the response over the medium and longer-term too.

“The continually evolving situation owing to the coronavirus pandemic, cost-of-living crisis, war in Ukraine and the implications of changes to UK and Welsh Government budgets, as well as other factors, point to the need for a dynamic approach to addressing poverty in Wales.

“That said, our work shows that there is no easy solution, just the hard work of leading a whole public sector response, and a relentless focus on delivery.”

In the 20 years prior to the pandemic, poverty rates in Wales had reduced slightly from 25% to 23%, with much of the improvement coming in the early 2000s, the report said.

However, since then poverty rates have remained largely stagnant and for much of the period have been higher than in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.