Decision details

Debates are one of the most frequent items of business on the Plenary agenda. Many types of debate are brought forward in Plenary, including:

• Opposition party debates on a topic of their choice;

Other than in the case of Government debates, the time allocated for all other types of debates and their frequency are determined by the Business Committee

The item started at 16.11

Voting on the motion and amendments under this item was deferred until Voting Time.

A vote was taken on the motion without amendment:

NDM5386 Elin Jones (Ceredigion)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the recent rises in energy prices and regrets the impact that this will have on all households in Wales, especially the fuel poor and those who cannot access preferential dual fuel energy deals.

2. Regrets that food bank use has almost tripled over the past year, with the majority of those turning to food banks being working age families, some because of low paid employment.

3. Notes that the recent Community Housing Cymru report on the impact of the bedroom tax found that arrears as a result of the bedroom tax are predicted to be over £2 million by next April.

4. Notes that there are still over 41,000 more people unemployed now than before the economic crisis began.

5. Calls on the Welsh Government to review and revise its anti-poverty strategy in light of the growing crisis faced by people as a result of austerity, changes to benefits and rises in the cost of living.

For	Abstain	Against	Total
9	0	44	53

The motion without amendment was not agreed.

The following amendments were tabled:

Amendment 1 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

Insert as new point at start of motion and renumber accordingly:

Welcomes that the UK economy grew by 0.8% in the third quarter of 2013 and the forecast for UK GDP growth in 2013 has been revised up from 0.6% to 1.4%.

A vote was taken on Amendment 1:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
44	0	9	53

Amendment 1 was agreed.

Amendment 2 - William Graham (South Wales East)

Insert at the end of point 1:

‘, and the need to address the impact of this with a clear understanding of the consequences for prices, investment, consumer and industry behaviour’

A vote was taken on Amendment 2:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
44	0	9	53

Amendment 2 was agreed.

Amendment 3 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

Insert as new point 2 and renumber accordingly:

Welcomes the UK Government’s announcement of reforms to save households an average of £50 per year on their energy bills and to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament.

A vote was taken on Amendment 3:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
44	0	9	53

Amendment 3 was agreed.

Amendment 4 - William Graham (South Wales East)

Delete point 2 and replace with:

Notes that newly opened food banks across Wales are helping to meet the need of the hidden hungry and acknowledges the important work of food banks and their contribution to the lives of people in crisis.

A vote was taken on Amendment 4:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
39	5	9	53

Amendment 4 was agreed.

Amendment 5 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

Insert as new point 3 and renumber accordingly:

Welcomes the Liberal Democrat policy to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, implemented by the UK Government, which means that from April 2014 over 1.1 million people in Wales will have received a tax cut of over £700 and that 106,000 Welsh low-income workers will be taken out of paying income tax altogether.

A vote was taken on Amendment 5:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
32	12	9	53

Amendment 5 was agreed.

Amendment 6 - William Graham (South Wales East)

Delete point 3 and replace with:

Calls on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to deliver a whole market solution to the post devolution housing supply crisis.

A vote was taken on Amendment 6:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
44	0	9	53

Amendment 6 was agreed.

Amendment 7 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

Insert as new point 4 and renumber accordingly:

Regrets the failure of housing associations and the Welsh Government to prepare for changes in the benefit system, despite two years’ notice, and the failure of previous Labour and Conservative governments to build sufficient homes, resulting in a loss of 1.5 million homes.

A vote was taken on Amendment 7:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
5	0	48	53

Amendment 7 was not agreed.

Amendment 8 - William Graham (South Wales East)

Delete point 4 and replace with:

Welcomes the fall in the number of people not in employment in Wales since 2010, but recognises that Wales still has a long way to go compared to the rest of the UK.

A vote was taken on Amendment 8:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
12	0	41	53

Amendment 8 was not agreed.

Amendment 9 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

Insert at the end of point 4:

‘and regrets that Wales continues to lag behind the rest of the UK with an unemployment rate of 7.8% compared to a UK average of 7.1%’.

A vote was taken on Amendment 9:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
17	0	36	53

Amendment 9 was not agreed.

Amendment 10  - William Graham (South Wales East)

Delete point 5 and replace with:

Calls on the Welsh Government to review and revise its anti-poverty strategy on the basis of co-production in order to tackle the deep rooted causes of poverty in Wales, the widening poverty gap and stalled social mobility since devolution.

A vote was taken on Amendment 10:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
12	0	41	53

Amendment 10 was not agreed.

Amendment 11 - Aled Roberts (North Wales)

In point 5, delete ‘in light of the growing crisis faced by people as a result of austerity, changes to benefits and rises in the cost of living’ and replace with ‘to tackle deep-rooted and growing poverty in Welsh communities’.A vote was taken on Amendment 11:

For	Abstain	Against	Total
17	0	35	53

Amendment 11 was not agreed.

A vote was taken on the motion as amended:

NDM5386 Elin Jones (Ceredigion)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Welcomes that the UK economy grew by 0.8% in the third quarter of 2013 and the forecast for UK GDP growth in 2013 has been revised up from 0.6% to 1.4%.

2. Notes the recent rises in energy prices and regrets the impact that this will have on all households in Wales, especially the fuel poor and those who cannot access preferential dual fuel energy deals, and the need to address the impact of this with a clear understanding of the consequences for prices, investment, consumer and industry behaviour.

3. Welcomes the UK Government’s announcement of reforms to save households an average of £50 per year on their energy bills and to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament.

4. Notes that newly opened food banks across Wales are helping to meet the need of the hidden hungry and acknowledges the important work of food banks and their contribution to the lives of people in crisis.

5. Welcomes the Liberal Democrat policy to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, implemented by the UK Government, which means that from April 2014 over 1.1 million people in Wales will have received a tax cut of over £700 and that 106,000 Welsh low-income workers will be taken out of paying income tax altogether.

6. Calls on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to deliver a whole market solution to the post devolution housing supply crisis.

7. Notes that there are still over 41,000 more people unemployed now than before the economic crisis began.

8. Calls on the Welsh Government to review and revise its anti-poverty strategy in light of the growing crisis faced by people as a result of austerity, changes to benefits and rises in the cost of living.

For	Abstain	Against	Total
5	0	48	53

The motion as amended was not agreed.