I have looked at the figures, and you are, very neatly, avoiding the point that your Government has repeatedly refused to allow council houses to be built using the proceeds of the sale of council houses. [Interruption.] You diminished the supply. I was also in London 40 years ago—40 years ago was when the Thatcher Government came in and decimated the supply of social housing. So, there is much that we can agree on in this Chamber, but there are some fundamentals we will never agree on, and one of them is that, if you decimate the supply of social housing, you get homelessness. And that is what we are currently seeing.

We published a strategic policy statement only two weeks ago, recognising the need to look afresh at our approach. The strategy is focused completely on the prevention of homelessness and, in those rare circumstances where it can't be prevented, to minimise the damage it causes, focusing on rapid rehousing, ensuring homelessness is rare, brief and unrepeated. The approach does seek to support those currently experiencing homelessness into long-term, secure accommodation, whilst significantly reducing the flow into homelessness at the same time. Many Members in this Chamber have made this point: they've made the point about Housing First, which we are embracing. We're investing £1.6 million this year in our pilot projects. To be clear: Housing First is not a silver bullet; it's one aspect of a rapid rehousing approach. We need to take a whole-system approach if we're to shift our model of service delivery. And legislation must be seen as the last line of defence in preventing homelessness, not the first.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I will also say this to our local authority colleagues: the 56-day point is not a target, it's a backstop. I do not want to see local authorities telling me that they have managed to meet their obligations because people have been looked at at 56 days when they could have been looked at at 63 days, 110 days, or whatever it is. So, I agree completely with Leanne Wood. This is about changing hearts and mind inside the system administration. And in order to do that, and in response to the action group's report, I have spoken, or my officials have spoken, with all the council leaders and chief executives of the four big cities in Wales where the pinch points are—I'm sorry to use that term, but where the bulk of homeless people arrive. Because that's where services are and that's often where they can get some of the support that they need. And we have spoken to them about shifting the model inside those cities this winter, in response to the action group's recommendations, which we've accepted in full. And all of them, I'm very pleased to say, have embraced that wholeheartedly. We have now got assertive outreach training going on in all of those areas and then right across public services in Wales, alongside colleagues in health, social care and so on. And we will be working towards having a policy where we do not have any eviction or discharge into homelessness from any public service in Wales, as rapidly as we can shift the service to that line. So, I make no excuse for shifting that. We have to do something very quickly.

The action group has recommended that we look afresh at our approach, and I should also say, because many people have mentioned them, that we have particular pathways for veterans and people leaving prison. We are working specifically with task and finish groups on those pathways to see where they work, why they work, or, where they don't work, why they don't work, and pick that up. And, in particular, I've got a task and finish group working with Cardiff prison, Cardiff Council and my officials, looking to make sure that we don't have rotating people coming out of Cardiff prison onto the streets of Cardiff. Once we've got that sorted, we will roll it out across Wales. So, we are going with some pace to try to sort this out, I think.

I also completely agree with the disapplication of the Vagrancy Act. I've said this in a number of contributions in the Chamber this term, Deputy Presiding Officer, so I won't go through it again, as I've made our position very clear there. We're also taking legal advice on whether we can disapply any sections of it legally, but we're also working on voluntary agreements across Wales to make sure that councils and police forces step up to that plate. I'm also working with my colleague Lee Waters on a number of initiatives around bringing empty properties back into use across a number of council areas, and Mike Hedges will be delighted to know that Swansea's one of them. So, I'm very happy to do that.

So, I'm going to wrap up by saying this: look, I completely agree that we need a cross-Chamber embracing of where we can agree, and there is much we do agree about. So, I think we can do that. The things that we can't agree about, we can put to one side. I'm happy to pick up good ideas from across the Chamber, but also from across public services and sectors. So, I'm going to finish with this, Deputy Presiding Officer: I call on everyone here and all public service leaders across Wales to pledge to work in line with our policy principles to end homelessness. You'll have had the opportunity to read the strategic policy statement, the report from the action group and our response to that. We've also had loads of opportunities in Plenary and committee in the last few weeks to discuss this issue. Now we can turn those words into actions. We're entering a critical time of year for deaths on the street. I don't think the figures are accurate that we have, but any death is a death too many—let's be clear. Homeless people die in their 40s, slightly younger for women than for men—but in their 40s. It's appalling. So, we must do something about it because, here in Wales, together, we can and will end homelessness. Diolch.