Questions now from the party spokespeople. The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Dai Lloyd.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, you may have noticed that there's possibly a general election happening very shortly, but in view of that, it's emerged that students in Cardiff have been told that they won't be able to vote tomorrow because of an administrative error that is not their fault. I'm told that Cardiff council have admitted that around 200 of the 1,000 people who gave invalid addresses when they registered haven't been followed up yet. So, at this late stage, what can you do as Minister to try and rectify this unfortunate situation?

I wasn't aware of it, I have to say, so if he wants to give me details as soon as possible, I can follow it up with Cardiff council. I'm not sure of the answer, therefore, because I wasn't aware of the problem, but if you want to share the details with me, I'll see what we can do. We certainly, obviously, want to ensure that as many people are able to exercise their vote as is humanly possible. 

Thank you for that. Turning back to housing and rough-sleeping matters, as you'll be aware, the housing support grant is pivotal to enabling various agencies, like Cymorth Cymru, Community Housing Cymru and Welsh Women's Aid to deliver those oh-so-valuable services to counter homelessness and rough-sleeping on our streets, yet funding for housing-related support has reduced by £37 million in Wales since 2012 in real terms, so a recent report says. So, has the Welsh Government any plans to increase the housing support grant in the next budget round?

Well, as Dai Lloyd pointed out, we're having a general election at the moment and he'll know, therefore, that we've had to delay the publication of the budget. The draft budget alongside the local government settlement—at the same time, unusually, because of the compression of the timescales—will both be issued by written statement on the Monday following the general election. So, next Monday. 

Thank you for that, because statistics by the Wallich show an increase in the number of rough-sleepers on Swansea's streets, and when I've been out with the homeless soup run—and Leanne has been out as well on the homeless soup run in Swansea—the evidence is stark, actually. It's particularly poignant coming up to Christmas, as we are now. So, with the wild public spending bonanza promised by whoever wins this general election tomorrow, will the Minister commit to ensuring that preventing homelessness is a priority in any future spending decisions?

Yes. Clearly, we want to prevent homelessness. Dai Lloyd will be aware that we've got the housing action group, chaired by the chief executive of Crisis, working for us. We've accepted all of the recommendations of the first report, deliberately asked for by us in order to address rough-sleeping and the sharp end of homelessness in the run-up to Christmas. As a result of that, we've got the assertive outreach training right across Wales already. We've specifically trained all of the relevant workers in Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham and Newport, but that's not to leave out other parts of Wales being rolled out right across those acute places where people gather.

I too have been out with various soup runs, breakfast runs, and so on, in Swansea and Cardiff. I'm not going to promise to get everybody in off the street because it's impossible to do; anybody who made that promise would be bound to break it. What we have said is that we will know who everybody is who's sleeping rough, and we will have a plan for them. If we can get them in off the street, of course, we will. Otherwise, we will have the assertive outreach workers reaching out to them. I met with two of them from Cardiff last week. Some of the stories they told me were absolutely heartwarming, but they also emphasised that it can take six to nine months to get somebody's trust enough to accept that you're giving them the right help and support.

So, we're not trying to force people to do things against their wishes, but we do want to make sure that they're safe and they have a care plan in place, and that we have the outreach workers working with them. So, what I am saying is we will know who everyone is, we will have a plan for them and, where possible, we will get them in off the street as soon as possible to one of our housing first arrangements, or the specific arrangements we've put in place in the four cities.   

Conservative spokesperson, Mark Isherwood. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Under the Welsh Government's local government funding formula, nine out of 22 Welsh authorities received an increase in the current financial year: Cardiff up 0.9 per cent, Swansea up 0.5 per cent, Wrexham 0.1 per cent cut, Flintshire 0.3 per cent cut, despite all having equivalent population increases. Alongside Flintshire, the councils with the largest cuts of 0.3 per cent included Conwy and Anglesey, although Conwy and Anglesey are amongst the five local authorities in Wales where 30 per cent or more of workers are paid less than the voluntary living wage. Prosperity levels per head in Anglesey are the lowest in Wales at just under half those in Cardiff, and Conwy council has the highest proportion of over 65s in Wales, at 25 per cent compared to Cardiff on 13 per cent, which has the smallest. When I questioned you about this here on 9 October, you replied,

'we offer all the time that a local authority who thinks that the measures are not right should come forward and put its suggested adjustments into the distribution sub-group formula'.

Have any local authorities come forward since you made that comment on 9 October and, if so, can you identify them?

As far as I know, they haven't, but I will check for Mark Isherwood just to be absolutely certain, but, as far as I know, no local authority has made a formal proposal to change the DSG formula.FootnoteLink But I make the offer again: if an authority wants to come forward with a change to the DSG formula, we are more than happy to look at it and to run the figures, and to put it through the democratic processes that we have in place to do that. The partnership council and the Welsh Government agrees the distribution sub-group formula every year. [Interruption.] What on earth does that mean, Darren Millar? What we believe in is local democracy and a local democratic structure. The Welsh Local Government Association and us work very carefully in the partnership council to do this.     

Information further to Plenary

You don't need to be answering Darren Millar. Answer Mark Isherwood. 

Thank you. 

Well, in fact, the—. 

Mark Isherwood, if you can continue, and if he can be allowed to continue, especially by people in his own group.

In fact, the very week that you made that comment to me, a letter was sent to the First Minister and to yourself and to the Finance Minister and Trefnydd from Flintshire County Council, signed by its leader and the leader of all groups. It said, 'Flintshire has engaged with Welsh Government to make our case over a series of budget setting years. We still contend that as a low-funded council per capita under the local government funding formula, we're more exposed than most to the impacts of a decade of a reductive'—a term they used—'national budget. The evidence is there.' And they concluded, 'We would welcome a private discussion with you over our case to support and are resting on your judgment to make the best use of the uplift in the Welsh revenue budget to support the collective case for local government.'  

You replied on behalf of the Welsh Government on 4 November, 'The Welsh Government is committed to providing the best possible outcome to local government from our budget process', but then only discussed the size of the cake when their letter was about how the cake is sliced. Therefore, in response to the letter they did send to you the same week you responded to me, and you've repeated your offer to them, have you agreed to meet them, as they requested, to discuss the agenda that they raised with you in that letter?

I've no recollection of that, so apologies. We get a large number of correspondence. I'm more than happy to look at it again.

I met with all of the WLGA executives up in north Wales, in Flintshire County Council offices. Hannah and I had a number of meetings that day, at which the leader of Wrexham was present. I'm more than happy to meet with them again. Obviously, you don't know what the settlement looks like this year because we haven't released it. But I would say, Mark Isherwood, as usual, it's all very well for you to stand there and tell me I should give local authorities more money, but you're the architect of nine years of austerity, aren't you? You're the ones who've cut our budget, you're the ones who haven't sent us enough money, you're the ones who've made sure our funding formula is lower now than it was nine years ago, so you've only yourselves to blame.

Well, I'm not going to re-rehearse the economics lesson I tried to give you yesterday on that point—

Do you want the same answer?

Yes, because you don't seem to understand basic economics, but there we are—

Excuse me.

That's not what my question is about—

Ask your question now and the Minister can respond as well.

My question is about how the budget, whatever size it is, is sliced. It's about the formula, not about the size. We're all waiting in anticipation to hear what the next size of the budget will be—

I've been patronised by a lot better people than you, Mark Isherwood.

Wait for the question to be asked, and let's have a little bit of calm in the Chamber now, please.

So, their request to you, a letter replying from you, signed 4 November, they have requested a private discussion.

Do you want to read it out loud again?

So, I'd be grateful if you could look at that.

Similarly, I received correspondence from—I won't name them—an executive member of Flintshire this summer about the unfunded legislative impacts on local government. They said that local government has contested that the regulatory impact assessments that Welsh Government produces alongside draft legislation do not always fully estimate or project the likely implications of making a reality of legislation. They provided two examples—additional learning needs and sustainable drainage bodies—and they said that, in their case alone, the unfunded budget pressures next year would be over £0.5 million across Wales, over £10 million. Again, how do you respond to these concerns? This case was raised, actually, paradoxically, by a member of your own party, but speaking on behalf of the local government family across Wales, and is clearly, given the detail and evidence in the letter, based on evidence rather than simply opinion.

Well, Mark Isherwood, as usual, you are the one who doesn't understand fundamentally the way the economics of the local government settlement work. Wales has been underfunded by the Conservative Government for the last nine years. We only have so much money—much less than we should have in order to split it up. The splitting up of that pot is done via the democratic processes of the WLGA. We have liaison meetings with all of them, all the time. The leaders of the councils you are mentioning are present in many of those meetings. I have met with all of the council leaders and chief executives across Wales. I'm more than happy to entertain any suggestion that they want to put forward again. I just don't know how many times—. It doesn't matter if you wave pieces of paper at me. I don't know how many times I've got to tell you the same thing. Perhaps you should listen.