With thanks to the Llywydd and to Darren Millar for the opportunity to ask the question.

9. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of houses for people who find themselves homeless in Wales? OAQ53677

Yes, thank you for the question. This Government is committed to ensuring everyone has a decent place to call home. We are investing in tackling homelessness, including through the development of Housing First in Wales, and are committed to increasing and protecting our social housing stock.

Thank you for that response. Of course, in light of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, there is a duty on local authorities for everyone who finds themselves homeless—that they are given temporary accommodation whilst the council finds them a home. That is something to be welcomed. But, as a result, the cost of providing temporary accommodation in Denbighshire, for example, has increased from £151,000 four years ago to £558,000 this year. In Wrexham, it’s up from £330,000 to over £600,000. In Gwynedd, it’s gone from £354,000 to over £700,000. So, may I ask what steps you are taking to ensure that local authorities are funded sufficiently in order to ensure that everyone who needs temporary accommodation gets what they need?

Yes, it's an interesting consequence of the Act, which has been very successful in preventing homelessness, that we are seeing some of the rises that the Member outlines, and we are working hard with local authorities to ensure that people don't stay in expensive temporary accommodation for any length of time at all and to move them on into secure, long-term accommodation as fast as possible, which also has the added benefit of being cheaper for them and for the council or registered social landlord who's providing it. So, we're working on a programme of that, very much.

I already spoke, in an earlier answer to Leanne Wood, about the housing supply and our ambitious plan to get the housing supply to be sufficient. In the end, that's the only answer, because, in the end, unless we can increase the housing supply to match the social need—and, actually, I would say social demand—for houses for social rent we will always have the problem of people continuing to look for accommodation in what is after all a system of rationing, the allocations process. So, my ambition would be to get to a point where you aren't in a system of rationing, and, if you want to live in social rented housing, you can rock up to your local housing authority and say, 'I would like a house for social rent, please'. Certainly, when I grew up, that was the case.

So, we need to increase our housing supply dramatically. We need to build at pace and at scale, and in the meantime we need to work with our housing and RSL people right across Wales to ensure that they have the best route back into secure accommodation that they can manage, both to manage the costs and, actually, to manage the experience of the individuals who have found themselves, unfortunately, homeless.

Thank you, Minister.