Questions now from the party spokespeople. The UKIP spokesperson, Michelle Brown.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. What assistance is the Welsh Government offering to owner-occupier families at risk of being evicted from their home by their mortgage company for mortgage arrears?

We have pathways through local authorities where there are opportunities to speak with anti-homelessness officers in authorities across Wales. We have a very good recognition in a 63 per cent reduction in homelessness figures in Wales.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Last November, the national sleeping rough count estimated that 240 people across Wales were sleeping rough during one week in November 2015. Granted, it’s an estimate, but many people will find themselves on the streets this Christmas, often through no fault of their own. What is the Welsh Government doing to address this problem and help rough sleepers escape their horrendous situation?

I agree with the Member in that nobody should be homeless at any point, particularly at Christmas. It’s a terrible place to be considering. But we are investing in homelessness provision through organisations like Llamau. We invest in our communities—in local authorities—but there are still people who present as homeless and we are doing our damnedest to make provision to support these people who find themselves in this position.

Thank you. I know that the Cabinet Secretary is as concerned as I am about the welfare of our forces veterans. Has the Cabinet Secretary instructed local authorities to prioritise the housing of homeless veterans? If not, does the Cabinet Secretary intend to do so?

We introduced last week a new housing pathway for veterans, which was created and designed with veterans in that process. I launched that in Lesley Griffiths’s constituency in Wrexham, and it’s a very popular one. I was with armed forces personnel only last week, with the general in Wales, and he was very complimentary about the efforts we’re making here to support the armed forces, including the armed forces advisory group and the cross-party group that Darren Millar chairs in the Chamber.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Bethan Jenkins.

Cabinet Secretary, you may know that I’ve met with quite a few asylum-seeker families recently in Swansea with regard to the awful conditions that many of them are facing with regard to Home Office provision via the company Clearsprings Ready Homes. I was wondering whether you would be able to facilitate a conversation with the Home Office on these terrible conditions, notwithstanding the fact that many private landlords in Wales have contacted me saying that they do lease their homes to the Home Office for Clearsprings to utilise to house asylum seekers. So, while it may not be a direct decision for you to make as housing Minister here, the inevitable consequences are that we have responsibilities in this area, and I would like you to make representations to show the severity of the situation now here in Wales.

I’m supportive of the Member’s question. I think the Member should write to me in detail on that. I think she’s right to raise that, while this is a non-devolved function, we do pick up the consequences of vulnerability. I think that’s something I’m very interested in trying to resolve with the Member.

Just following on from that, I wonder whether you would be willing, as Cabinet Secretary, to meet with some of the asylum seekers and refugees in the area so that they can tell you directly what those concerns are, because many of them feel that they’re not listened to. There are myths, of course, about the fact that they are taking homes from people from Wales. That is not the case entirely—they’re not on any list that any other person here in Wales would be on with regard to social housing. They find it very, very difficult to make complaints, and have said to me that they have faced racism from Clearsprings staff when they have been making updates to their homes. So, would you be willing to do that, Cabinet Secretary, so that you can hear for yourself those problems first hand?

Certainly, if I am able to meet with them, I will do. If not, I will certainly provide a member of staff to support your support in meeting them.

Thank you very much. On a different matter entirely, I know that you will be aware that we’ve had some extremely cold weather recently, but, of course, it’s been a bit milder—not that I’m a weatherwoman all of a sudden. There was—[Interruption.] Oh, it’s the last day of term.

On a serious level, there were news reports recently of a man freezing to death in Birmingham, and now my office has learned that one local authority in south-east Wales has not provided any emergency accommodation for rough sleepers in its direct area. Although the severe weather emergency protocol isn’t compulsory for local authorities here, your Government’s code of practice does state that all councils should have a written cold weather plan that includes their arrangements to help rough sleepers during periods of cold and severe weather.

We’ve looked into, as an office, more of the plans across Wales. Some local authorities have good plans, but others told us there were still discussions ongoing now about what those plans should be. Do you think it’s acceptable that some local authorities still haven’t had those discussions with partners? What will you be doing to make sure that all of those local authorities have plans in place so that we don’t face situations where people are dying on our streets this winter?

I will look at that in more detail—I’ll speak to my Cabinet colleagues as well. I think this is a moral issue—the politics aside of any local authority, actually we’re talking about human beings here. Anybody who finds themselves in a homeless position—it would be terrifying, and there for the grace of God go I, sometimes. The fact is we should make sure we look after people humanely. I will look at the detail that the Member presents, and I’ll ask Cabinet colleagues to look at that in their own portfolios as well.

The Welsh Conservatives’ spokesperson, Mark Isherwood.

Diolch, Lywydd. The Bevan Foundation’s July 2016 ‘Equality and Social Justice Briefing’ on poverty said that the latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions’s households below average income survey showed that low household incomes continue to be a significant problem in Wales, with more than one in five people living on a household income below 60 per cent of the median, and children being at the greatest risk of poverty, although the largest group of people on low incomes being adults of working age. And they added that the longer-term and more recent trends in poverty have had little impact on Wales’s position compared to other UK nations and regions, with Wales continuing to have one of the highest rates of poverty in the UK for all age groups. Why is that, Cabinet Secretary?

That’s why we’re introducing 100,000 apprenticeships for all ages. That’s why we’re continuing with Communities for Work. That’s why we’re continuing with the Lift programme. That’s why we want to engage with our communities to build better, stronger communities. I was very clear about my sense of direction yesterday. I would welcome the Member’s comments in terms of embracing the opportunities that we have here in Wales, with this very stubborn effect of poverty. We have to work together. Governments can’t fix poverty. We have to have a collective about this, about how we do this, and that’s why the WFG Act is an important one, where all our public sector partners have a part to play in this.

So, you’re not going to tell us why that is. May I suggest that you and your colleagues have been running economic development and employability programmes in Wales since 1999, and that is the situation now? Your department, I believe, is responsible for the Lift programme, as part of your tackling poverty action plan, providing training and employment opportunities for people in households where no-one is in work. And I believe you’re also responsible for the Communities for Work programme, focusing on the most deprived communities, which clearly fall within your portfolio. And you’re also extending both programmes from 2018 to 2020. What due diligence have you carried out? I understand the Welsh Government has been unable or unwilling to release data on the outcome from those programmes, and it’s understood that, by contrast, the UK Government Work Programme providers in Wales have been able to achieve five to 10 times better value for money, delivering the average cost of a job at £3,000, whereas it’s understood that the jobs under your schemes are running into possibly tens of thousands of pounds.

Two points. First of all, I’m very grateful to the Member for suggesting a response to my question earlier on. But may I remind him that it was his Government that was in power in the eighties that absolutely devastated Wales, with the highest rate of unemployment ever in the UK? And his mate on the front bench there, in UKIP, was part of the Government at the time as well, so he can’t shake his head either. The second point of the issue around Communities for Work and the Lift programme is one that is an important one. I haven’t dodged the fact that we won’t release figures; I’m more than happy to look at them in the new year and furnish the Assembly with those details. This is about getting people at the hardest end to reach back into the workplace—not an easy cohort of people to deal with, but we have success and we should celebrate success. Stop knocking Wales.

I’m reliably informed that people have been unable to obtain the proper data despite asking for it, so it would be welcome if you could deliver it. And don’t tell me about the 1980s. I know what it’s like for your father to come home and tell you that the manufacturing company he works for has shut and that he’s become unemployed. That happened in 1978 because of the economic meltdown created under Labour. [Interruption.] Yes it did, and I lived that life, so don’t you lecture me.

Finally, the situation in Wales on the latest figures is that we have higher economic inactivity rates than England, Scotland or UK levels. We have the second highest percentage of people in work living below the living wage. We have the highest levels of underemployment in the UK, according to the latest figures from the Carnegie UK Trust. We have the highest percentage of employees not on permanent contracts, and the second highest proportion of employees on zero-hours contracts, again after 17 and a half years of Labour Government in Wales. Why is that, Cabinet Secretary?

I’m very grateful for the Member’s very aggressive tone that he has brought to the questioning. I also remember the times through the 1980s when the Member worked in the local building society, taking the redundancy cheques from the steelworkers that were made redundant by the UK Government at that very time—a very difficult time, and a community that was broken at that time. So, again, in lecturing about what happened in our communities, you can ask many Members on these benches what happened to their communities under the Conservative administration.

Can I say that rebuilding communities, as I said earlier on, doesn’t go on a switch? You have to work at this, and we’ve been working very hard. And places like Flintshire, which was devastated with the highest redundancy notice ever served in Europe in one day by the UK Government, have now been transformed to have one of the lowest unemployment levels. And that’s not by chance—that’s by a Labour authority, with a Labour administration here. So, I don’t take any lectures from the Member opposite; he wants to take a reality check.