My name is Heledd Fychan and I’m a Plaid Cymru MS for the South Wales Central Region. After being elected in May 2021, I resolved to listen to what my constituents were telling me, and focus on what I could do to improve the situation in their daily lives for as many people as possible.
Through casework and through meeting with community organisations, I kept hearing about how the cost of living crisis was deepening, and how ever more people – including children – were falling into poverty. In autumn 2021 I chose to make that crisis one of my key campaigns. With the support of my team, I began organising the first of a series of Cost of Living Crisis Network events in South Wales Central.
The Cost of Living Crisis Network
The purposes of these events are twofold:
1. To provide a space where organisations supporting their communities through the cost of living crisis can come together to share information and discuss ideas of how they might work better together.
2. To enable myself, as a member of the Senedd, to hear directly from community organisations on the ground about how the crisis impacts the people they see on a daily basis, and help inform my thinking about what actions the Senedd might take to improve things.
The first of these events was held on 17 February 2022 at St Dyfrig’s Church Hall in Treforest. Pontypridd and Taff Ely Food Banks gave a detailed report on how the cost of living crisis was leading directly to an ever-increasing number of people coming to them for support, to put food on the table for themselves and their families.
Carmel Community Clothing gave a presentation about the growing number of people coming to them for clothing in the Upper Rhondda. People’s Assembly Wales outlined their work across the region to raise awareness of the impacts of austerity on people’s lives, and how their campaign for free school meals was progressing through the Senedd.
Following the event, my office produced a summit report bringing together all the evidence and testimonies of the organisations who attended. It put forward a set of priorities, so that we might all work better to support communities across South Wales Central.
Only getting worse
At the time I said that, with energy, fuel, and food prices rising dramatically, the planned cut to Universal Credit, and the financial hardship many were already suffering as a result of the pandemic, the crisis people were facing was only going to worsen. Sadly, this has proven to be the case.
The feedback I had from organisations was that coming together in this way was incredibly useful. They’re often so busy supporting those in crisis that they rarely get an opportunity to step back and hear what everyone else is up to. This can leave those working on the front line feeling isolated, and despondent about the scale of the challenge they and their communities are facing.
Since then, a further eight events have taken place across the region in Pontyclun, the Feel Good Factory Bryncynon, Porth, Pontypridd, Tonyrefail, Maerdy, Cardiff, and Aberdare. The themes have been varied and included digital exclusion, fuel tokens, in-work poverty, maximising people’s income, the impact of poverty on health, and how basic human rights are now becoming unaffordable.
A variety of speakers from organisations have brought different insights, which has led to new partnerships being formed. Funders have also attended, with many reporting that they’ve adapted their programmes, having heard directly from the organisations attending about the kind of support that’s needed. Many attendees then became recipients of their grants.
Ever more with ever less
The network has also attracted speakers who are working at a national level to influence policy changes – including, at last October’s event, Dr Steffan Evans, Head of Policy (Poverty) at the Bevan Foundation, and Rocio Cifuentes, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. This was particularly useful, as child poverty has been a consistent concern for the network, with many organisations critical of the lack of targets forming the Welsh Government’s child poverty strategy.
New analysis recently published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that child poverty in Wales is set to reach its highest rate in 30 years by the end of this decade. It will take significant government interventions if we are to change that projection.
A huge concern for many now is the imminent rise in costs for third sector organisations and charities because of changes to national insurance contributions. Citizens Advice – who play such a crucial role in supporting many of the most vulnerable people in our communities – warns that the rise will lead to job cuts. So as demand for their services continues to rise, they’ll be increasingly stretched.
Coupled with the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment for thousands of pensioners in Wales, and the continuation of the two-child benefit cap, is it any wonder that people living in traditional Labour-supporting areas feel betrayed and badly let down?
Willing and eager to listen
When the network began, I hoped it would become less relevant and less needed over time. But unfortunately demand for support is only increasing. Just as food banks have become normalised in society, so now are fuel banks, as well as baby banks. Though they play an important role in providing support in our communities, they should never have been needed.
Many cost of living crisis network members have been taking their ideas on what needs to happen to change things for the better for people in our communities directly to the Senedd. I’ve been proud to be able to support those campaigns. The Labour Welsh Government – and the Labour UK Government – would do well to listen to them if we are to stop inequality and deprivation from deepening.
As we prepare for the 2026 Senedd election, together with my Plaid Cymru colleagues, that’s what we’re doing: listening. So we have detailed plans and policies ready to be implemented post-election if we’re the leading party.
In opposition, we secured free school meals for all primary school children in Wales, working with those who were campaigning for its implementation. And that’s how we plan to govern – listening to grassroots organisations and leading researchers to implement policies that are transformational.
Should anyone want to find out more about the network and its events, please get in touch via Heledd.Fychan@Senedd.Cymru
