I thank Plaid Cymru for introducing this motion—very important. It is the season when traditionally we have looked at the needs of the most vulnerable in terms of housing, but I think it’s a lesson that should be considered all year round. As has been observed already, I think most evictions are undertaken by social landlords and Shelter estimates that over 900 social evictions a year are now occurring and they involve more than 500 children. So, it’s not surprising it occurs in this sector because, obviously, it caters for some of the most vulnerable people in society and many of those are on very low incomes. There’s a huge budgetary challenge, if nothing else, of living on a very low income, especially if you’ve got responsibility also for children. So, I do think that we need to focus on this and how tenants are supported.

I must just refute some of the information that has been advanced about universal credit. It is not the ‘blunt instrument’ that Jenny Rathbone seems to think it is. It is there to take the sharp divide between the world of work and benefit and to incentivise work, and there are mechanisms that allow for the most vulnerable to have their rent paid directly. It is nothing about creating a system that makes that less likely and creating additional burdens for those living on low income. So, I think you need to be fair in your assessment of these reforms, even if you don’t agree with them in principle.

We’ve heard that it’s rent arrears—I think the public would be quite surprised by this—that account for the overwhelming majority of evictions and not anti-social behaviour. And I think what is particularly stark is that over three quarters of evicted tenants are still homeless six months later.

A couple of speakers have already talked about the costs, which are considerable, and those costs could be recycled I think into better spending on eviction prevention services in particular. I do, as other speakers have, commend Shelter’s report on these issues that was published, I think, in October. Although, as the report observes, there is in general an ‘any eviction is a failure’ culture, policies amongst social landlords vary and are often inconsistently applied and there should be a system of pre-action protocols that is the bedrock, really, of effective support for tenants. Can I also commend Shelter’s particular recommendations to the Minister, because I do think it’s a very practical report and it’s very, very well researched, but they do say that no court action should be taken before a fully preventative response has been exercised? I think that really has to be the absolute starting point.

Tenant engagement is key and it’s often very difficult because when you get into arrears and you’re in difficulties, you don’t want to engage—you don’t open your mail, sometimes. There are some really difficult experiences when people get into that hole and don’t know how to get out of it. So, engagement is key and to trigger engagement with the threat of eviction is obviously not likely to lead to very positive engagement. But there does need also to be rigour in the process, as Jenny Rathbone said, because it’s a serious issue if you are not paying your rent.

I think the relationship between engagement and tenants’ mental health is something that we need to be aware of and I was particularly interested in Shelter’s recommendation that all front-line housing teams should have a named mental health contact. I think that would be very, very useful. I also agree with the concluding recommendation that Shelter make that the Welsh Government should take responsibility for co-ordinating, or have a co-ordinating role in this area to ensure that landlords do provide support-based preventative services. At the very least, many of these evictions could be prevented, and certainly any eviction involving a child is a great tragedy. Thank you.