Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 14 July 2021.
Diolch, Carolyn. In the spring budget, as everyone knows, the UK Government announced it was cutting discretionary housing payment funding by 22 per cent, from £180 million to £140 million. The Government had, to be fair, boosted DHP funding from £139.5 million to £180 million in 2020-21 amid the pandemic. But I think it is worth noting that this year's funding is now lower than the discretionary housing budget was in 2017-18 or 2018-19. So, the cut has not taken us back to where we were before, it's taken us backwards several years. I do really think that it's time for the UK Government to rethink this strategy. It is clearly not the time for cuts when rent arrears and household debt continue to be a major issue, and the risk of households facing eviction and homelessness continues to be significant. There was a telling report very recently that showed that the wealthiest households had made significant gains in savings and net wealth during the pandemic, while the bottom third of households had become significantly poorer. I do think the UK Government needs to understand the divisions it's causing in society by making some of the really quite petty cuts that it's making in these areas.
In Wales, the Welsh Government is providing an additional £4.1 million to local authorities this year to top up discretionary housing payments, to help those on benefits who have struggled to pay their rent. As you know, I recently announced the tenancy hardship grant, which is a new measure worth £10 million, to support people in the private rented sector who struggle to pay their rent, and last year, I announced £50 million of funding for urgent capital projects, to provide high-quality temporary and permanent homes to help enable move-on from temporary accommodation. And last but not least, I was very pleased to increase the housing support grant this year by £40 million—an increase of almost 32 per cent. We set a challenging new-build target as well. But I will say, Llywydd, that it's not the Welsh Government's responsibility to step in where the UK Government has failed, with hard-won money from the Welsh budget, to shore up our people when the UK Government has seriously failed them. I am appalled that they have chosen to do so.