I'm delighted to take part in this very important debate today and I thank Plaid Cymru for bringing it to our attention. Homelessness in the twenty-first century is morally reprehensible. We have a duty to ensure, with regard to homes being built, that demand meets supply. It's called forward planning. Putting an end to homelessness is one of the key reasons I entered politics. In the prison service, I saw far too many young men who committed a crime simply to have a roof over their heads and hot meals daily. To be arrested for vagrancy is an extended insult to an already unfortunate position that a person finds themselves in. 

Whilst the causes of homelessness are many, the main contributor is lack of housing. We are not building enough new homes, particularly affordable and social housing. Experts predict that we need to build 12,000 new homes each year. Sadly, only half that number is being built. This lack of housing has resulted in 2,652 households becoming homeless between April and June last year, and saw nearly an additional 2,000 threatened with becoming homeless within eight weeks.

There are around 2,000 houses in temporary accommodation and over 200 of those in bed and breakfasts. Thirteen per cent of those in bed and breakfast were families with children, and this is totally unacceptable. These families need homes urgently, yet there is not enough social housing or affordable housing to meet that need. The Welsh—