1. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's eviction policy? TQ557

Minister.

Can someone unmute the Minister? There we are, Minister.

Diolch. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Welsh Government has negotiated a policy of no eviction into homelessness with all its social landlords across Wales. There is no eviction policy in the private rented sector, and the Welsh Government has, in fact, taken unprecedented steps to support tenants, preventing homelessness and supporting them to remain in their homes.

Thank you for that response, Minister. As we've already heard this afternoon, regulations safeguarding people from evictions are to come to a close partially today. The news on the grant for people who are having difficulty in paying their rent is to be welcomed, but there is a risk that this will be entirely insufficient to meet the real demand.

But also the Government doesn't have a particularly good record of ensuring that support reaches those people who need it most, if you look at the fact that 1,500 people have expressed an interest in the tenancy saver loan and that only 41 received any support, and tens of thousands of people more are about to find themselves in a financially vulnerable situation if the Bevan Foundation research is correct.

We've already heard that the Government is funding councils to tackle homelessness, but the sad truth of the matter is that many county councils continue to house people in hotels and bed and breakfasts. There's a very real risk that we will see an increase in the number of people who are homeless as a result of this, never mind the fact that the eviction policy is to come to an end entirely in September, just as furlough comes to an end. Shouldn't all steps possible be taken to ensure that people don't become homeless in the first instance, and what steps will you take to ensure that there is more appropriate housing available to house people who will find themselves homeless in the short term? Thank you.

Thank you for the question, which I'm sure comes from a real, shared desire, as I know everyone in Wales has, to make sure that we tackle the scourge of homelessness, especially with preventative measures. I'm extremely proud of the measures that everyone in the sector has taken across Wales during the pandemic, and we easily have the best record in the UK nations of making sure that people have not been homeless on our streets through the pandemic. Everyone in the sector has absolutely worked their socks off, coming together across Wales from both the statutory and voluntary sectors to make sure that that can happen.

We are still funding local authorities to the tune of just under £2 million a month, in addition to the normal funding that we give them, in order to ensure that people presenting as homeless right now are still treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve, and are housed in temporary accommodation. I absolutely accept that that temporary accommodation is a range of different services—of course it is, because we have an unprecedented situation in front of us.

We are currently seeing around 1,000 presentations of homelessness to local authority services each month, and we are currently seeing an average of around 400 of those people being moved into permanent accommodation. Members who were here in the last Senedd will know, because the Senedd agreed with us in funding local authorities to step up the pace of house building during the pandemic—. And you'll also remember, I'm sure, that we kept the construction industry open and running through all of that in order to do that. So, actually, 400 permanently housed people a month is an extraordinary effort by local authorities and registered social landlords and other house builders to get the housing built that we want. 

I'm absolutely determined we will not have a going back to rationing in the housing sector and that we will continue to ensure that people who require homelessness services are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. We are currently working at pace to get our Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 implemented, and that will address a number of the issues that Mabon has raised in his question. We are working at pace to do that. There are real complications, which the Deputy Presiding Officer will not thank me for going into in the amount of time I have in a topical question, but I'm more than happy to discuss it in a cross-party way, as we have on a number of other occasions. And that will make a huge difference. Of course, today, as you rightly pointed out, we've announced that we have the grants system going into effect. You are right to say that the loans were not as effective as we'd have liked, for a range of reasons, and so what we're doing is we're announcing a grant now. There will be eligibility criteria for that. Our local authority partners, who've worked with us so hard during the pandemic to deliver services, will be delivering that on behalf of the Welsh Government, through the hardship fund. And I'm delighted to say that we've had agreement from the Welsh Local Government Association in the Government in order for that to be facilitated as soon as possible.

We are very worried about the housing crisis in Wales. Very recently, Plaid, quite rightly, brought a debate on the housing crisis, in Siân Gwenllian's name, to the Senedd—a motion that we did not amend, because we entirely agree. The true nature of the crisis is the real problem that we have with the pipeline, if you like, to homelessness. And so my colleague Jane Hutt has facilitated with us a series of advice and funding to advice agencies to assist with relationship breakdown issues and individual counselling and guidance, including debt guidance, mental health support and so on, in order to prevent that happening. And I'm working very closely with my colleague Lynne Neagle as well in making sure that substance abuse and mental health support is available in the sector.

I want to finish just by thanking the sector from the bottom of my heart, actually, for the work that they have continued to do throughout the pandemic and for the work they are still doing now to make sure that, in Wales, we have no real return to the streets and that those people who are still rough-sleeping, in tiny numbers in Wales, have outreach workers assigned to them, and we're working hard to get them into services.

I place on record my own interest in property within the private rented sector. 

Now, as the National Residential Landlords Association reported in January, around 60 per cent of our private landlords have lost rental income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-two per cent have lost more than £5,000, and 36 per cent have reported that losses are continuing to increase. Their bills have to be paid, and, if the contract is breached, sometimes eviction is the only way in which a landlord can protect their own livelihood. 

Now, the reality of the matter is that, if the Welsh Government pursues a less than supportive direction for our valued private sector landlords, this could see around a third of our privately rented housing stock taken off the market or moved into the holiday let/Airbnb sector, which is already tempting some fed-up landlords as it is so much more lucrative and, frankly, a lot less hassle. This would make it harder for people to find a home. It would push up the cost of rent in remaining properties. Now, I'm sure that Plaid Cymru would not wish to support those outcomes, so it is time that they worked with us all, cross party, to ensure that both our tenants and, indeed, their property owners—

Will you ask the question now, please?

—have a fair deal. Yes. The end of legal measures to prevent evictions is a good start. So, it is important that tenants are supported to move into properties they can better afford. So, Minister, will you consider policies such as the introduction of deposit passporting? Diolch. 

Thank you for the question. I think I understood it to be, right at the end there, the introduction of deposit passporting. We have a range of measures we're happy to look at in the private rented sector to enable tenants to move between households, where that's necessary for their families, and, as I've said, we're working hard in implementing the renting homes Act, which will allow greater protection for tenants in the rented sector. If Janet Finch-Saunders is very concerned about landlords who are losing income, she would do very well to refer them to our scheme, which would allow them to transfer their house into local authority control for a guaranteed income at the local housing allowance level. Over a large period of time, the scheme has proved very popular with landlords, who no longer have to have the 'hassle'—as she put it—of having tenants. It allows the tenant security and it gives them a secure income, benefiting all parties. So, if she's that concerned, I would highly recommend that she recommends that scheme in a widespread way to her landlord connections.

She's right in saying that we have a large number of reasonable landlords across Wales, to whom we're very grateful. They work hard to make sure their tenants are well looked after, and, in return, of course, they will be grateful that the tenant is now able to get a grant to repay the rent that they were unable to pay through no fault of their own as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We're not talking about some kind of scurrilous tenant who's wilfully withholding rent; we're talking about perfectly reasonable human beings who find themselves in a situation that they cannot control through no fault of their own, which is why this Government is prepared to step in and assist both them and, of course, the landlords, who then receive the money, and the Government also prevents the human catastrophe of large numbers of people becoming homeless, which we all I'm sure wish to see.

Thank you, Minister. And now a question from Laura Anne Jones.