3. Will the Minister make a statement on how homelessness has been reduced since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic? OQ55304

I'd like to thank the Minister for that response. I would also like to publicly compliment those employed by local authorities and the third sector who have worked on homelessness, to ensure that those who do not want to sleep on the street do not have to. I am—I'm sure the Minister is—concerned that there are some, despite all the best efforts of local authorities and third sector organisations, who have decided to stay sleeping on the streets. Does the Minister agree with me that, at the end of this pandemic, we cannot return to the pre-pandemic level of street homelessness, and that we need to ensure that action is taken long before the point of people becoming homeless and having to live on the street?

Yes, Mike, I'm absolutely delighted to agree with you on that. We've been working very hard, across all sectors in Wales, to ensure that, as I say, more than 800 people have been housed during the initial stages of the pandemic. We also have very high presentations of people arriving at local authority doors every week since the pandemic started, and accelerating slightly at the moment, as the lockdown starts to ease. I cannot thank enough local authority partners, third sector partners, everyone, really, on the ground, who have all pulled together in a collaborative way, which we should be really proud of.

Only yesterday I met with all of the cabinet members for housing from across Wales. We had a really good discussion about where we are so far, what measures have been put in place to ensure that people are all in—as the crisis slogan has it—and then what we can do to move to phase 2, to ensure that people have the right kind of accommodation going forward, and, much more importantly, actually, are surrounded by the right kinds of services. Because what this crisis has done is it's allowed us to reach people who were otherwise unreachable, with services that they badly needed, to get them in touch with those services, and to get them to trust the people who are delivering the services. So, it's given us an opportunity to contact people who would otherwise have taken months and months and months to get into those services. And so we're determined to build on that, and build on the hub approach to those services, and the collaborative way that local authorities, health boards and third sector partners have worked together.

This is, though, easy to say and very hard to deliver. So, we're working really hard with local authorities on their phase 2 approach, which is a real mixture of things, including new build, taking private sector rented accommodation into the social sector, investments schemes, making sure that void turnover is as fast as humanly possible, and just using every avenue that we have in front of us to ensure that we don't have a return to the streets.

I'm very pleased indeed to note the progress that's been made in this area in Wales, and, indeed, in England. Now, in England, yesterday, the UK Government announced that a further £105 million of funding will be made available, most of it new money, so that the scheme to help rough-sleepers can be extended. And the BBC has reported that there will be a consequential from this decision in England, where they hope to aim much of that extra support at the type of wraparound care and support that rough-sleepers often need so that they can sustain a housing tenancy of some sort. Can you give us the assurances that you will take a similar approach to that consequential funding that's likely to come to Welsh Government?

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.

Minister, as I've said many times before, one of the silver linings to come out of this pandemic has been the Government's impetus to end the scourge of homelessness. And yesterday I attended a virtual meeting with Swansea Council, and I'd like to congratulate the leader and the councillors of Swansea Council for securing accommodation for many people who found themselves without homes, as well as providing the important wraparound service for those with co-ocurring issues.

Unfortunately, the economic impacts of the pandemic have yet to show their full force, and sadly, this is going to have a bigger impact on young people, who are already having difficulty finding employment. Minister, do you agree that your current social housing targets will be inadequate going forward, and will you outline what steps you are taking to address the inevitable social housing shortfall? Thank you.

Yes, Caroline, I'm very happy to join with you in commending Swansea Council. As I said, councils right across Wales have worked very hard, but in particular the councils that are pinch points for homelessness, so Swansea, Cardiff, Newport and Wrexham have been particularly hard hit. That's not to say that other councils haven't had a lot of input and their own problems and so on, but they've been particularly hard hit as the cities. And Swansea have done a remarkable job in housing a large number of people with complex needs. I take my hat off to the staff on the ground who are doing that work, because it's hard and difficult to do and they've done a cracking job. 

And you're absolutely right that part of the response to this, and to make sure that people don't go back to the streets, is the building of sufficient social housing to make sure that people can get the housing they need. We're very, therefore, pleased to say that we have a large number of what are called 'modern methods of construction' factories right across Wales. Members of the Senedd will be getting, in their inboxes, a small video from my department, alongside something called 'killer facts', which tell you all about modern methods of construction and what their benefits are as opposed to traditional methods of construction. And one of the real benefits of them is how fast they go up. So, houses are built in a factory on a level, in the warm; they're able to employ large numbers of people and they can socially distance—they've been working throughout the crisis. We were able to expand those factories pretty rapidly. They're geographically located all around Wales. So, we're able to employ local people to do it, we have Welsh supply chains, in the main, for them, and we're working on making sure that the supply chains across the piece are Welsh, and we can rapidly put them up on garage sites, at the back of developments, and on small outlying plots across Wales, where there are services already, and the build time is somewhere around 16 to 18 weeks, so it's quite phenomenal.

So, that will very much be part of what we're doing, as well as accelerating the 'normal'—if I can put that in inverted commas—building of social houses, which we have in train, and then looking to use any money that I can get my hands on to accelerate the capital developments there, including a range of things that I want Members to be aware of, because I want them to be able to push them in their own constituencies. So, we're looking to take private sector homes into the social sector, offering people at least five years of the local housing allowance rent, to maintain the home throughout at a standard and pass it back to the landlord in good condition at the end. So, there are no worries about voids or management or anything else. It's a very good deal—five years or longer so that we can give people secure accommodation in those buildings, bringing empty, private sector accommodation back in and using it for social housing, and working with a group of investors to do that, because, as you know, many people are not getting much of a return on their money sitting in a bank account, but this is a good way of getting a return on your money, if that's what you're looking for. I very much acknowledge that we have a large number of good landlords across Wales who only own one or two houses, who might be very pleased to work with us in this social way to assist people, but also to get a regular income for themselves without the worry, because I know that's what they want.

So, we're willing to look pretty much at any scheme that comes forward. So, if Members are aware of anything in their own area, I'd be only too delighted to hear from you.