The pandemic has focused all our minds on the need for everyone to have access to a safe, affordable home, and, of course, it has highlighted the huge challenges that people face who don't have a permanent home. Perhaps now more than ever, we appreciate what it means to have a safe and secure roof over our heads, somewhere to call home, and this is very much reflected in our programme for government.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I will certainly not have time to cover in any detail, or give proper weight to, all of the issues that have been raised by Members across the Senedd today. I would need my time for each one of the issues raised here to be able to do justice to it. I would therefore very much hope that we will be able to have a number of debates across the issues raised today and that, actually, we'll be able to work together across the Senedd to solve some of these problems, for which I think there is at least some consensus.

Building on the strong foundations we laid during the last term of government, we are committed to building homes for the future—well-built, climate-secure homes that families want and can afford. We exceeded our target for affordable homes in the last Senedd term; the target for this term will be more challenging again, focusing as it does on 20,000 homes for rent within the social sector. So, very much more specific than the affordable homes definition that Members will have seen and not approved of previously. A number of people mentioned it here today.

The details of our housing target are set out in the ministerial statement that I issued earlier in the week. The statement makes it clear that, to support truly sustainable communities, we will ensure that developments deliver genuinely mixed-tenure housing across the whole spectrum of tenures, from owner-occupier housing and shared ownership to homes for rent that people can afford. Investment in social housing and greener housing has many benefits. It can create local jobs, contribute to decarbonisation, build the foundational economy, develop skills, tackle fuel poverty and, of course, provide better quality homes, helping to make homelessness a thing of the past.

It is absolutely crucial that our focus on social housing remains, so whilst we exceeded our target for affordable homes in the last term of Government, our commitment for this term raises the bar in two very significant ways. Firstly, they will all be for rent within the social sector, and secondly, they will all be low-carbon homes, kind to the climate, warm and affordable. Let me be clear that this target is not in any way about market housing. Help to Buy—Wales remains an important part of the toolkit here in Wales to ensure that people and families can have a home that is right for them, but it's not part of the target that we set ourselves for the 20,000.

The target is a challenging one. Our housing need estimates show that, under central estimates, around 7,400 additional homes a year are needed for the next five years, and this includes a need for 3,500 additional affordable homes each year. The target goes beyond that and I think it's absolutely right that it does. In recognition of our continued commitment to social housing, we've already allocated a record £250 million to the social housing grant this financial year. This is more than double the budget seen in 2020-21. And of course, the supply of genuinely affordable homes is fundamental to resolving homelessness. However, we also need the systems, policies and practices that support people to thrive in the homes once they have them.

I am so really proud of the whole housing sector and the way they came together during the pandemic. It was something that Wales did really well and I am humbled and proud to have been a part of it. We will be able to build on the fantastic work we did during the pandemic to truly transform our approach to homelessness, making it genuinely preventative and, where it cannot be prevented, ensuring that rapid rehousing approaches mean that it is indeed rare, brief and unrepeated. During the pandemic, we have, in fact, supported well over 10,000 people into temporary accommodation. We proved that we can rise to the challenge of rapidly rehousing everyone in their moment of need, without rationing or prioritisation. The investments we have made to date are not just about a short-term fix to an immediate crisis; it is the start of a transformation journey towards ending homelessness in Wales forever. We now have a unique opportunity to transform homelessness services and adopt a truly inclusive approach to ensure that no-one is left without accommodation or support. We must move from reliance on temporary accommodation to a system focused on prevention and rapid rehousing. The homelessness action group recommendations support this and set out an ambitious vision for Wales, where prevention and rehousing form the core of our homelessness policies and practice.

Of course, prevention can be complex. Our housing support grant has prevention at its core. It's designed to support people to live independently and to help them maintain tenancies and prevent homelessness. That's why I increased the grant by £40 million this year—an increase of around 32 per cent. This recognises the importance of housing support as part of that preventative agenda. But we recognise that homelessness transformation will take a number of years. We have made significant progress this year; we've kind of proved the concept, if you like, and we are now firmly on the track to making this happen in Wales.

Alongside that, the Government has made it clear that the environment will also be at the heart of our decision making. In creating this ministry for climate change, we've brought together environment, energy, housing and regeneration, planning and transport, giving us a real opportunity and all the critical levers to develop the sustainable communities that the people of Wales want and need. The environment doesn't just have a seat at the Cabinet table; it will be a consideration in everything we do. We are now developing new housing standards in the social housing grant programme that focus on quality, space, energy and decarbonisation.

Members who were here before will know that we've already launched the optimised retrofit programme to begin to deliver our decarbonisation ambitions for the existing housing stock in Wales, bringing better homes, jobs and the skills of the future to those homes, as well as the new build that we are progressing. We are embracing innovation and new approaches to house building and to house retrofit through our innovative housing programme and the support of modern methods of construction.

Our commitment to ensuring families and individuals have access to housing that enables them to thrive has not wavered, and our plans to address the barriers to everyone having a decent place to call home do not stop with those I've outlined this afternoon. We're also delivering housing-led solutions to people's health and care needs, driven by our integrated care fund. We will continue to address the barriers and discrimination tenants face both in accessing and staying in their private rented accommodation.

I did agree with one thing Janet said: she is correct to say that the vast majority of the landlords in Wales are good landlords and we work very well with them. Rent Smart Wales has proved an excellent tool during the pandemic, because alone amongst the Governments of the UK we know where our landlords are, we are in contact with them and we're able to contact them directly. 

But, we also want to make significant improvements to the protection we give our tenants and their ability to pay. We all know that once you're in a year's rent arrears, you are not going to recover if you're on a low income, so we will work hard to bring forward support for those tenants to enable them to stay in their homes—also, of course, enabling the landlords to benefit from the rent that the tenants can then pay—and, really importantly, preventing those people becoming homeless too, on top of the already worsening crisis we have of temporary accommodation.

We will take significant steps to improve building safety so that people are safe and secure in their homes, the importance of which we've all been reminded of this week as the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy passes, and which we did start a discussion on earlier today. I do not have time now to go into the details of all of that, but be assured we take it extremely seriously. I have met a number of the residents already and we are working very hard to unlock some of the complexities of that.

Alongside good placemaking, revitalising our town centres to be more agile and wider considerations like active travel, we will deliver exemplar sites as flag bearers for the future. 

Last, but, of course, very much not least, we recognise the very severe issues relating to high numbers of second homes in some of our communities across Wales, and in particular the long-term sustainability of our Welsh-speaking heartlands. It's an absolute priority for us to deal with those issues, and our Welsh language community housing plan will seek to address pressures faced by those communities. A cross-portfolio ministerial task group is already formed and working.

It's clear that there's no single answer to solve the many complex issues involved, however, as was clear from the number of contributions with a large number of ideas, which we're happy to explore, that were put onto the floor today. But, our aim is clear and, I think, shared: we ensure that young people continue to afford to live in the communities they have grown up in, as well as ensuring the long-term sustainability and vibrancy of those communities. 

We have the will and appetite to engage across the piece to take forward our manifesto commitments. As the First Minister said in the programme for government—