SINCE the beginning of the year, 44 per cent more people have been fed by the Swindon Foodbank than in the same period last year.

And in 2012, the Swindon Foodbank fed 4,756 people – 26 per cent more than in 2011.

The Swindon Foodbank – run by the Salisbury-based charity, The Trussell Trust – says the increase in numbers is down to unemployment and redundancies, the rising cost of living and recent Government welfare reforms.

This is despite Energy Secretary Ed Davey’s claims this week that there is no link between the rise in the number of food banks in Britain and the Government's welfare reforms.

Mr Davey said: "I think people who run food banks are doing an extremely good job, I think they deserve credit for the work they do.

“But I think it is completely wrong to suggest that there is some sort of statistical link between the benefit reforms we're making and the provision of food banks.”

Alex Pollack, the project manager for Swindon Foodbank’s sister charity, Swindon Restore, said: “I would say there definitely is a link between the Government’s welfare reforms and the number of people using food banks.

“There has been an increase in people using the Foodbank and yes, some of them do relate to the reforms, but there are also a lot of other factors.”

“One such factor is unemployment which, despite falling by five per cent since this time last year still affects 3.6 per cent of economically active people in North Swindon and 4.6 per cent in the south.

Another factor Swindon Foodbank said had led to an increase the number of people seeking their help was the greater awareness people have of the project.

Mr Davey’s comment was in response to a question from Labour MP Huw Irranca-Davies at the start of a debate on the Queen’s Speech, which focused on the cost of living.

Mr Irranca-Davies said: "Can you tell me against this glowing backdrop that you have painted, why it is in my constituency now I have a food bank in every single village when three years ago there was only one?

"Why is it that there has been a quadrupling of food banks under this Government?”

The discussion arose after Shadow Energy Secretary Caroline Flint moved an amendment expressing the belief that the Queen's Speech offered no answers for squeezed households facing a cost of living crisis.

The amendment asked the Government to take action to get people into work, build more affordable homes, tackle rising energy bills, deal with the growing cost of commuting and to better regulate the private sector rental market.