Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 3 October 2017.
Homelessness is on the increase, First Minister, and that’s from rough sleeping counts, applications for homelessness support, people in temporary accommodation, evictions—the lot. Here in Cardiff, The Wallich estimates that there’s been an 18 per cent increase in rough sleeping compared to the same quarter in 2016. It comes as no surprise, to us at least, that this is happening. Everyone predicted that this would happen as a result of welfare cuts, which, I remind you, started under the Blair Government when Lord Freud was given his first ministerial job. But it was also predictable that Westminster’s dysfunctional political system would ignore these warnings and go ahead with their cuts anyway. Why wasn’t your Government and your party more proactive in seeking the powers to not have to implement these cuts?