Can I welcome the fact that we have the opportunity to progress the Welsh budget for 2020-21 in spite of the difficulties and the circumstances around this year's process? Those difficulties have included, as we've already heard, the timeline for setting this year's budget, making it much more challenging than usual for backbench AMs in particular to provide effective scrutiny. Not of this Government's making, I know, but worth noting nonetheless. What I would say is there is much to be welcomed in this year's budget, not least the continued investment in the Welsh NHS, and a significant uplift in funding for local government this year, and there's much that I could comment on.

However, I just want to add my voice to the one issue that arises from the scrutiny undertaken by the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, set out by the Chair, John Griffiths, and which has also been raised by Jenny Rathbone and Mark Isherwood, but I think needs reinforcing, and that is the budget allocation for the housing support grant and homelessness prevention line, both of which are static this year. 

Given the importance that we place on tackling housing issues, I do find this aspect of the budget before us today unfortunate, to say the least. Like others, I'm sure, I've seen in my own constituency the benefit of this grant and the general policy direction of dealing with homelessness and support in cases of domestic abuse, for example. But I also see, from the casework that comes through my office, that we are only scratching the surface and, for agencies seeking to deliver housing support to the most vulnerable in our communities, it becomes more challenging year on year. And as has already been referenced, this appears to be confirmed by the Minister for Housing and Local Government's statement today on the rough-sleeping count, which shows a rise of some 17 per cent in the last year. 

Only last week I was asked to speak at an event celebrating the work of the Housing First project in Merthyr Tydfil, an innovative scheme being delivered by the Salvation Army for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. The type of support required in Housing First projects is intense and it's expensive. The project in Merthyr is only able to support four or five people, despite us knowing that the need is much greater. The project is, as all such projects are, time-limited and dependent on grant funding. In my view, such vital housing support, whether Housing First projects, women's refuges or support for early intervention to prevent homelessness, need to have certainty of funding and certainty of an annual uplift to keep pace with the costs of delivering these services. 

The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee's report details those concerns and how the static budget line could impact upon objectives set by Welsh Government itself. So, to quote from the committee's report, 

'the Welsh Government should consider increasing the money available to fund homelessness and housing support.' 

I know that the issue of housing and homelessness prevention is a priority for this Welsh Government and our policies have always been innovative in so many ways, but I'm looking to the Minister to assure me of two things: first, that the invaluable work undertaken through this budget line, which I've outlined briefly in my contribution, is recognised by Welsh Government; and secondly, should the opportunity arise, then extra money will be diverted to meet the needs of organisations in this sector, because against a backdrop of reduced funding, down from £139 million in 2011-12 to £124 million this year, 2019-20, it's difficult to see how we can build and develop these services that many organisations are working so hard to deliver in such difficult circumstances and which I have no doubt will be confirmed when the homelessness action group reports in the coming weeks.