Ben Lake MP is looking to appoint a part-time Constituency Support Officer to join his team in Lampeter. 

On Monday, 25 January the National Eisteddfod's Management Board announced that the Ceredigion National Eisteddfod has been postponed until 2022. The aim is to hold the Eisteddfod in Tregaron in August 2022, moving the Llŷn and Eifionydd festival to August 2023, and then visit Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2024.

As surveys show increased levels of spending using Buy Now Pay Later products including Klarna and Clearpay during lockdown, Ben Lake, the MP for Ceredigion, is joining over 70 MPs from across parliament and Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert to call on the Government to protect consumers and regulate the Buy Now Pay Later industry.

On Wednesday 13th January, MPs will debate New Clause 7 to the Financial Services bill which requires the regulation of the Buy Now Pay Later industry, a form of credit that has boomed during lockdown. Recent research from Comparethemarket.com shows BNPL schemes are being used 35% more often now than before the pandemic. 27% of users state this was because they could not afford to make the purchase outright.

A Westminster Hall debate, brought about by an online petition signed over 200,000 times, saw MPs on both sides come together to shine a light on the challenges currently faced by restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés and supply chain businesses across the UK.   

During his contribution to the debate, Ben Lake MP emphasised the importance of the hospitality industry to Ceredigion’s local economy. Ceredigion is home to nearly 400 food and accommodation businesses, including 75 pubs, and together hospitality businesses employ 4,500 people in the county. This equates to over 16% of all employees, without accounting for the many supply chain jobs that are dependent on the sector, such as those found in breweries, food wholesale, and catering equipment hire businesses. 

Plaid Cymru MPs are calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make permanent a temporary increase in Universal Credit, to help protect those at risk of falling further into hardship as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.    

Ben Lake MP wants the UK Treasury to extend the Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit uplift of £20 a week, brought in at the start of the pandemic, as figures from the Department of Work and Pensions reveal a significant increase in the number of Universal Credit claimants in Ceredigion since March 2020.   

A third of adults (36%) have been the target of a scam since the Covid19 crisis, research by Citizens Advice Cymru reveals. 

Polling conducted on behalf of the charity also showed that certain groups were at an increased risk of being contacted by a scammer, often those who could least afford it:

New focus has been placed on the need for the UK Government to support subpostmasters.  An EDM was tabled on 30^th November, supported by Ben Lake MP, which “urges the Government to preserve their commitment to post offices by continuing to ensure Government services such as, but not exclusive to, passports, state benefits and DVLA remain available via the post office network."  

In the last 15 years, successive Governments have withdrawn services from the post office network in order to cut costs. This has created issues – for customers and for subpostmasters, whose income has been adversely affected. The importance of post offices is widely acknowledged – nationally and within local communities, especially for the vulnerable people who rely on post offices for the provision of these remaining Government services.

Ben Lake MP met with children with sight loss and their families to hear about their experiences of education and specialist support at a virtual event hosted by the charity Guide Dogs.  

New research from Guide Dogs has found a decrease in happiness, independence and confidence in children with sight loss over the last 12 years. It also found that more than two thirds of parents felt that there was not enough support to help parents and guardians at the point of their child’s sight loss diagnosis. 

Ben Lake blasts broken promises on SPF and sharp reduction in transport-derived funding

Plaid Cymru’s Treasury spokesperson, Ben Lake MP, has said that the UK Government’s Spending Review spells “disaster for Wales”.

The Ceredigion MP pointed to broken promises on Wales’s allocation of funding through the Shared Prosperity Fund and a drastically decreased comparability factor for transport spending as showing “blatantly clear that Westminster is seeking to undermine Welsh devolution”.

The Conservative manifesto for the 2019 General Election committed to tackling inequality and deprivation through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the level of which would be “at a minimum match the size of those funds in each nation.”

Local MP Ben Lake is encouraging Ceredigion residents to support their local shops in the run up to Christmas and beyond.  

After a year of upheaval for independent businesses, and ahead of Black Friday weekend, Visa has released key findings from its upcoming report created in partnership with Cebr (Centre for Economic & Business Research). The socio-economic report launches alongside Visa’s Where You Shop Matters Christmas campaign, championing local, independent businesses.  

According to the report, for every £10 we spend with a local business, more than a third (£3.80) stays within the area, showing the value of shopping locally. By choosing to shop local this Christmas, consumers could double the amount of money that stays in their local area at a critical time for Wales’ small businesses.