9. What additional allocations will be made available to the Housing and Local Government portfolio during the current budget round to support the Welsh Government's Housing Support Grant? OAQ54868

In line with the priority this Government places on supporting the most vulnerable in our communities, and despite almost a decade of austerity, the Minister for Housing and Local Government is maintaining investment in the housing support grant next year at £170 million—sorry, £127 million.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. The housing support grant is one of the best lines of defence we have against the continued chaos caused by Tory austerity. The result of years of indifference from our UK Government about the impact of their welfare policies can be seen on our streets: shameful levels of rough-sleeping across the UK, not just in our cities, but in all of our communities.

Minister, councils in Wales use the housing support grant to protect the most vulnerable. If the March budget provides any additional funding to Wales, will you consider making more money available to the housing support grant? 

Jack Sargeant recognises the importance of the housing support grant, as do I, in terms of it being one of the levers that we have in terms of preventing homelessness here in Wales. He's right that, despite being able to maintain budgets at existing levels, we unfortunately haven't been able to provide real-terms increases to every item in the budget. Pressures continue, of course, going into next year.

I think that our record in Wales does compare favourably with that across the border, where Supporting People was dehypothecated, leading to significant cuts in the funding, according to the National Audit Office. But, of course, when the budget is announced on 11 March, we will see then to what extent there is additional funding that does come forward to Wales, and, obviously, any changes will be made then in an early supplementary budget, should those changes be significant.

Minister, the majority of additional funding to deal with homelessness seems to be targeted at Swansea, Cardiff, Newport and Wrexham. So, can I ask what additional money is going to be provided to support homelessness in rural local authorities in particular, for example Powys? 

So, Russell George is correct that there is specific funding that is going to Swansea, Newport, Cardiff and Wrexham, because those are real areas where there is significant rough-sleeping, and those local authorities do have significant pressure on them. But we absolutely recognise that homelessness doesn't just occur in cities and urban areas, it actually occurs across Wales, and that's one of the reasons why the local government and housing Minister has just launched a campaign that does set out that homelessness actually happens across Wales, and it can often be a hidden form of homelessness. So, she's particularly concerned about those people who are sofa surfing, for example.

So, there is support across Wales for homelessness—those homelessness budgets have been maintained at £17.9 million in 2021. And I'm sure that the Minister will be keen to provide an update on support within your particular area.

Thank you to the Minister.