4. What consideration has the Minister given to funding the housing support grant when allocating the Welsh Government budget? OAQ55037

Maintaining funding of £127 million in the housing support grant, alongside our continued investment of £18 million for tackling homelessness and other funding streams, highlights the importance we attach to providing services to the homeless, vulnerably-housed and people who need support to stay out of institutional settings.

My appeal is simple: don't do anything in your budget that threatens expenditure on tackling homelessness. You have to maintain and increase housing support grants and Supporting People, because, behind the statistics on homelessness, there are real people. With a heavy heart, I will mention one of them. The coroner this week confirmed that Paul Daniel Hughes was the gentleman found dead in a disused building in Llangefni last month.

My team was truly saddened to hear of Paul's passing. He'd been a regular visitor to my office. A local man, homeless, he lived in a tent on the banks of Afon Cefni for a period. My team tried to help him, and were frustrated time and time again. He was made homeless originally because of the death of his mother, or after the death of his mother. He'd been in a hostel for one time but was told to leave for apparently stealing a sandwich. He was desperate for assistance and found he just couldn't get the support he needed. Do you agree that it's people like Paul who have suffered, and in many cases lost their lives, because of spending cuts and that it's for people like Paul or because of people like Paul that we must invest properly in eradicating homelessness, and nothing but an increase in the funding available for this is acceptable?

Well, I'm obviously very sorry to hear about your constituent, Paul. You're absolutely right that Paul's situation and those of many people like Paul is very much a result of the situation we find ourselves in, the difficulty in getting employment. Actually, bereavement is one of the most prevalent reasons that I've heard from people who I've spoken to who have been street homeless, and that's been—. That was quite an eye-opener, because it's not one of those things that people often recognise, and I think that there's some more work for us to be doing there in terms of bereavement support.

Listen, as I said to Jack Sargeant, I've heard clearly the messages from colleagues and from committee and from others and we had the opportunity to discuss this exact issue with local government this morning, and, as I say, if there is additional funding coming forth, and if there is an opportunity at the final budget, I will indicate where those priority areas will be.

Well, I'm very pleased to hear those last remarks, because I appreciate that while this matter was well-aired yesterday, I don't think you did square off this question about preventative budgeting, which is a weakness that's been identified in the budget you brought forward. I visited, like others, Llamau. It was a Drws Agored project, which was about helping keep young people safe at home, and, if they can't keep them safe at home, to find them new safe homes—just to summarise it. It's not cheap, but what it suffers from, as so many of these projects, is that it has no certainty of continuity. So, can you tell me what assessment you've made of the savings further down the line for Welsh Government due to the current investment in the housing support grant and how much you could save were you to increase the housing support grant at this stage?

Certainty of continuity of funding is something that we are very mindful of. It's unfortunate that the comprehensive spending review of last year didn't occur, but we do expect it to happen later on in this year, and then that should give us at least a three-year outlook for public spending, which will certainly give Government a degree of certainty, and we're always keen to provide local authorities and our other partners with as much certainty as possible, as we can, for future years.

In terms of the preventative service, clearly, supporting people and preventing people from becoming homeless is one of those major services. The legislation that we've put in place, I think, is a fantastic example of a really, really good preventative approach. Over 20,000 households now have had their homelessness prevented because of the duties that we put on local authorities. So, there are a range of things that we should employ—we should employ funding and also legislation and smart policy ideas to support people and prevent people from becoming homeless. But, as I hope I've made clear to colleagues, I have been listening to the representations that have been made.

I also welcome the comments from the Minister. Late last year, the Welsh Government consulted on the draft housing support grant practice guidance for local authorities, and the consultation sought the view on whether the arrangements set out in the practice guidance document are fit for purpose, clear, and enable commissioners and providers to fulfil the core purpose of the grant and deliver the essential support services required for intended service recipients.

Minister, are you able to inform me, then, how the Welsh Government will filter those responses in order to produce that very important final guidance document in April? And are you able to inform me of the proposed timetable for the final guidance to be published? And how will the Welsh Government work with local authorities to ensure this guidance is implanted effectively to aid the citizens of Wales and, where possible, look at the lens of improving and increasing this grant?

Okay. Well, I'm afraid I'm not able to provide the detailed answer to how we are sifting and awaiting those responses, or able to give information on the timescale, but I know my colleague the Minister for local government will be able to do so, and I will ensure that you have a full response to that.FootnoteLink

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