Zack Polanski AM on free school meals in London and the cost of living crisis

Transcript

00:00 Today has been brilliant. We've spoken to the young people and also to the teachers

00:04 and some parents and the caterers. It's really clear that universal free school meals has

00:07 very much been welcomed by schools. It's really vital that every child doesn't go to school

00:14 hungry and also that they get through the day. I think there's lots of evidence as well

00:17 that a nutritious meal is really vital to making sure that a young person can be in

00:22 a space where they're being fostered properly.

00:25 Do you hope that this policy could be looked at by other cities across the UK?

00:30 Yeah I think London always can leap away in terms of demonstrating examples of best practice.

00:36 We have some unique problems in London but I think that gives us the opportunity to come

00:39 up with some unique solutions. It's been really interesting, the Cost of Living Group, we've

00:43 spoken to lots of different stakeholders, particularly speaking to Debt Free Advice

00:47 London just a couple of months ago. They were talking about some of the unique issues that

00:51 they have in London but actually they're not just Debt Free Advice London now, they're

00:54 Debt Free Advice. So they've taken some of those learnings and made them national and

00:58 I think there's probably other places we can follow that same model.

01:01 What specific challenges are there in London compared with the rest of the country when

01:04 it comes to the Cost of Living?

01:06 I think London has some really specific challenges, particularly around struggling public services

01:10 and making sure that they're funded properly. I think speaking as a Green Assembly member

01:14 I'm very concerned about the inequality that exists in society. I think there's often a

01:18 misconception that in London compared to the North for instance that we're doing a lot

01:22 better but lots of people will know that as you travel from one borough or even one street

01:25 corner to another you can see the wealth that's in society but also you can see people living

01:31 and rubbing shoulders against people who are living in deep poverty. I think it's been

01:35 really clear in the Cost of Living Working Group no matter what agency we've spoken to,

01:38 whether it's people with lived experience or whether it's experts, that is a real, real

01:41 problem that the Mayor needs to continue to do as much as he can about making that happen.

01:46 Of course it's not just the Mayor, that also needs to come from national government as