Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 20 February 2019.
Well, I certainly welcome what you've said there, Deputy Minister, and your broad support. For tenants, the stress and worry of accruing rent arrears, for instance, can exacerbate existing mental health problems, and for some, of course, it can trigger those mental health problems. And the cognitive and behaviour changes that often accompany mental health problems can make it extremely difficult to prevent arrears in the first instance, or to resolve them once they've occurred. Now, social landlords pay a lot of attention to this phenomena, and on two of the main recommendations of the report—that the Welsh Government should provide comprehensive information for landlords and letting agents regarding local and national mental health support, and that Rent Smart Wales should require all private sector landlords to complete a module on mental health to improve their knowledge of how to access support for tenants with mental health problems—will you be supporting these very innovative ideas?