Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that question. I can certainly confirm that the Welsh Government, since that time, has been working on the agenda of identifying and freeing up publicly owned land for housing. There is a specific ministerial group that works together, also including my colleagues Lesley Griffiths and Ken Skates, and we work together to identify those parcels of land that Welsh...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that question, and I can confirm that the work has been continuing since you had those initial discussions. There is a cross-Government group, which includes myself and the Ministers with responsibility for planning, economy and finance, that is looking right across the Welsh Government portfolio to identify parcels of land that we could bring forward for housing. And...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you again for that question, and it reminds me of the work we're doing to release stalled sites. So, stalled sites specifically include brownfield sites, which might be infill sites, or windfall sites, for example, and those are well known to the local authorities. Our stalled sites fund is a £40 million fund, which will be recycled over the period of the grant fund to achieve £160...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, we have our £40 million property development fund, which is specifically there—it's a loan fund at an attractive rate for SMEs. It's run through the Wales Development Bank. It was originally a fund of £10 million, but actually the demand was so high for it and it was so popular that we were able to increase the funding available to it. And, again, that's money that will be recycled...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a Government, we have demonstrated our commitment to tackling and preventing all forms of homelessness through new policy initiatives and significant investment. This includes an additional £10 million of funding in the next financial year, as previously announced by the First Minister, to specifically address youth homelessness. Today, I'm setting...
Rebecca Evans: I'm therefore pleased to announce that £3.7 million of funding will be allocated to the youth support grant to further evolve and strengthen the existing systems and services, with a focus on youth homelessness prevention, drawing on the principles of the Geelong model and adapting them for the Welsh context. The funding will also provide for training and resources to support school-based...
Rebecca Evans: I thank very much David Melding for his contribution and for his welcoming of the announcements today, and I really would like to begin by thanking David for the work that he does, and he has done for many years, as a real champion for children and young people in care and leaving care. I commend him and, again, thank him for the work that he does on the ministerial advisory group as well....
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those questions. It is a shame that they do fail to recognise the huge amount of work that has already been going on that has been supported by Government over a long period, not least through the Supporting People grant, which I know both our parties have a particular interest in. So, one example would be the Swansea Young Single Homeless Project. That is an...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for those comments. I'm particularly interested in the Grassroots project in Cardiff, so I'll be sure to try and have a visit there to find out more about what's happening and again will look to the example that you've given of St Basils in Birmingham, because I think it's important that we do look to best practice wherever we can find it. You mentioned the young man with...
Rebecca Evans: Formally.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I want to be clear that we agree with Plaid Cymru, with their motion, insofar as it relates to the devastating impact of the UK Government's austerity measures on the people of Wales. We do disagree with the practicality and desirability of taking over administrative responsibility for social security, and I will come to this in more depth shortly. As...
Rebecca Evans: Yes.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that intervention. Of course, it was the UK Government that abolished the independent living fund, and Welsh Government then sought to support people who were already on that fund. But this is an example of where, if you have this pot of money and you actually only allow those people who are on that benefit, or in receipt of that benefit, to continue on it, then you...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for the question, and, of course, the decision around the land transaction tax means that around 80 per cent of first-time buyers in Wales won't pay tax, with our threshold of £180,000. This, of course, is the same proportion of first-time buyers as in England with their stamp duty land tax. Currently, the average house price here in Wales is £140,000, so I think it is...
Rebecca Evans: Well, the Office for Budget Responsibility's assessment of the first-time buyers' relief was that it would do little to help first-time buyers, and it would increase house prices and result in very few additional first-time buyer purchases. So, we don't want to replicate a relief that's not deemed to be effective. And, in fact, our approach is much more fair in Wales, because our approach is...
Rebecca Evans: Well, clearly, Welsh Government is committed to increasing the scale and pace of building, and one of our commitments in 'Prosperity for All' was to work very closely with local authorities to do that. And we're able to do that now as a result of the raise in—or the scrapping of the borrowing limit, which, of course, Welsh Government has been campaigning for for some time. We're well on...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much for that. As you say, I did attend that report, and have read the very extensive document—I think it's about 2 inches thick. So, it certainly is full of evidence, which we are taking very seriously. What I learnt from that conference, really, was about the importance of supporting people with a direct impact of an experience of homelessness and listening to people who...
Rebecca Evans: Well, we're looking very seriously at the issue of priority need, and I completely understand where the call is coming from on it, and I am sympathetic to it, but, at the same time, we need to understand any possible unintended consequences. For example, when we look at the situation in Scotland, where they abolished priority need, you find larger groups of people staying for much longer in...
Rebecca Evans: Well, clearly, you're not aware of the work that we're doing through our housing first programme, and also, through the rough sleeper action plan, which was published last year, and the fact that we've asked every single local authority in Wales to put forward a homelessness reduction plan and a plan to tackle homelessness that has a specific focus on rough sleeping. When you look at the...
Rebecca Evans: The current discussion around the use of section 21 is an important one. I share the concern regarding the way some landlords choose to use section 21 notices. I have already instructed my officials to engage with stakeholders on this issue to consider potential options.
