Homelessness

Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 24 June 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:33, 24 June 2020

Well, David, as you know, we're a little nervous about consequentials until we've actually got our sticky fingers on them in the bank. I heard the announcement with great glee, and I immediately asked my officials to start the process of ensuring that we got hold of the money. So, we're on that—we'd very much like to have that money. But in the meantime, you'll know that we've already put £20 million into it, and we've got £10 million capital on that as well, and we've got a series of approaches that mirror the—well, actually, I think the English system is mirroring ours, across Wales. I also heard Dame Louise Casey talking on a radio programme about her role in it. I was very pleased to see that all of the measures that she was discussing were things that we'd already put in train here in Wales. And the reason we were able to do that is that we had the homelessness action group that Jon Sparkes chaired for us. They worked cross-sector in Wales, looking at best practice in this regard, and we've been able to accept and implement all of their recommendations. So, I'm very grateful to the group of people who worked so hard for us on that as well. We've accepted in principle all of the action group's recommendations, and we remain committed to matching that pace and energy.

So, I very much hope the consequential does come our way, and that we can make use of it, but we're well advanced with the planning. I'd like to commend, in particular, the local authorities who have already talked to us about the phase 2 planning. In particular, there are a number of presentations from local authorities about their thinking, which I'm very happy to share with Members of the Senedd as soon as they're available, because I know, David, you in particular would be very interested to see those, as they emerge.