Anti-poverty campaigners welcomed Nicola Sturgeon’s announcements of a rent freeze and £5 a week increase to the Scottish Child Payment but said more is needed to cope with the scale of the crisis.

The First Minister said rents will be effectively frozen from today and the £5 rise will come in November with families with eligible children up to under 16 able to apply.

She said: “The cost crisis means this Programme for Government is more focussed than ever before, deliberately so, with priority actions to provide help now.”

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Campaigners said families need more support and the money can be found if the will exists.

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance said: “The increase in the value and availability of the Scottish Child Payment will help thousands of households with rising living costs. Rent freezes will help tenants across the country.

“But we could do more. The First Minister said that it is not a lack of political will that prevents us from further action to help people with this cost crisis - it is a lack of money. So, the upcoming emergency budget review must focus on getting additional cash into the pockets of people on low incomes.”

The First Minister said a fixed budget prevents more action and called for Westminster to do more but Mr Kelly said there are Scottish opportunities with the tax system.

She said: “Regrettably, the powers to act in the manner and on the scale needed do not lie with this Parliament. In my view, they should lie here. If they did, we could have acted already. But they don’t. These powers are reserved to Westminster.”

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Mr Kelly offered a solution. He added: “One way we can raise money in Scotland, is through devolved taxes. Previous changes to the Scottish Income Tax have raised hundreds of millions of pounds for public services.

“We can go further. There are also opportunities to reform local council taxes, to make them fairer and raise much-needed revenue for overstretched services in our communities. There was no mention of any new wealth taxes in this programme for government.

“We can use our tax system to support each other in this time of crisis, and reflect the values of compassion and justice that we all share.”

John Dickie of Child Poverty Action Group said the rise was welcome.

He said: “The confirmation that the Scottish child payment will be increased to £25 and fully rolled out in November will be welcomed by families grappling with immense costs of living pressures.  Take-up must now be maximised so that every eligible child gets the payment, and resources must be prioritised to ensure that at the very least the payment holds its real terms value for families as inflation continues to rise next year”

Mr Dickie also said the tax system can be used more effectively.

He said: “ When children’s life chances are on the line we need to harness our collective wealth and income to protect and support them. Looking ahead, the Scottish government needs to review all the tax powers it has and make progressive use of devolved taxes to fund the social infrastructure needed, not just to prevent more children being pushed into poverty, but to help end that poverty for good.”