Thank you, and I very much welcome this debate today. We clearly all want to end homelessness, and we do know that prevention is the best way in which to achieve this. I think that Rhun ap Iorwerth really shared some strong evidence as to why the preventative approach as a priority does make sense. Our progressive approach focused on prevention has achieved a lot, but we are confronted with rising demand, in large part, I have to say, as a result of the UK Government's welfare reforms. We know that more and more people are turning to local authorities for help, and we have all seen the worrying rise in the number of people forced to sleep on our streets.

The groundbreaking legislation in the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 introduced duties to help prevent and relieve homelessness. And there can be no argument that it has had a dramatic impact. By the end of September, 12,912 people had been helped to avoid homelessness. It's important to recognise that, under our legislation, priority need no longer applies when people are seeking help if they are at risk of homelessness. The homelessness prevention duties, which require local authorities to find housing solutions, apply to everybody equally.

I'd also emphasise that rough-sleeping is only one aspect of homelessness, albeit the most visible. According to some estimates, for every one person sleeping rough on our streets, there might be as many as 30 or more people who are otherwise homeless, in temporary accommodation or sofa surfing. It's important that any decisions take account of the need to ensure that there is sufficient temporary accommodation of an adequate standard. Our legislation seeks a long-term and sustainable change, and we're supporting housing advice services to work holistically to help find solutions to housing need.

As yesterday's Wales Audit Office report 'How Local Government manages demand—Homelessness' recognises, this kind of cultural change doesn't happen overnight, and I am grateful to David Melding for outlining the key findings and the recommendations of that report, which I will be discussing with the Welsh Local Government Association.

There is a whole host of complex reasons why people sleep rough, and they usually involve a combination of personal and structural factors, which we've heard about in this debate. I would like to confirm to Members that we are driving forward our support for housing first, which will be a key element of our policy to reduce rough-sleeping. Following a policy conference, which Welsh Government sponsored with Cardiff University last April, we're funding a number of housing first services. These are supported by a network co-ordinated by Cymorth. We'll commission an independent evaluation of this work later this year.

This spring, I will receive reports from the research that we're funding on the impact of Part 2 of the housing Act. I will also receive a report from Shelter Cymru on research into the experiences of rough-sleepers, and this will provide us with evidence on how we can improve outcomes for people who are vulnerable.

Tackling homelessness is a priority for this Government, and we are backing our policy with funding, including an additional £2.6 million within this year. Our budget for the next two years includes an additional £10 million for homelessness in each year, and this places £6 million a year into the local government revenue settlement, and I expect this funding to strengthen statutory prevention services.