Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 21 November 2017.
Well, thank you. Housing-related support funded through the Supporting People programme and delivered through housing associations and third sector bodies has been improving lives and saving significant sums for statutory sector providers—health boards, local authorities—for many years. In your deal on the draft budget with Plaid Cymru, you agreed that you would ring-fence Supporting People funding for two years—the £124 million. But a letter to local authority chief executives on 24 October revealed that seven local authorities would be given 100 per cent spending flexibility, and the other 15, 15 per cent spending flexibility, across Supporting People and four other non-housing related grants. How do you respond, therefore, to concern that this effectively removes the ring fence in 2018-19, meaning that Supporting People funding is not guaranteed to be protected at 2017-18 levels, and that the lack of a distinct budget line for Supporting People gives no assurances that the funding will be protected to £124 million in 2019-20?