3. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: The Homelessness Action Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:28 pm on 30 November 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:28, 30 November 2021

Yes, thank you very much, Mike. I completely agree that house building is fundamental to this, of course, and social house building. One of the reasons we have the ambitious 20,000 target for homes for social rent is exactly because of that. We absolutely have to have the supply to meet the demand.

But, you know, it's not just about the roof and walls, although that roof and walls should be the best roof and walls that we can possibly put in place, and I'm delighted to say that our low-carbon social housing is the best in Europe as well, so, when you get your permanent home it's a very good home that you'll be very pleased to live in. This is not—. In fact, one of the things we enjoin our private sector partners to do is to build to the standard of our social housing. I can see my colleague Jenny Rathbone here—I can anticipate the question she's asking in her head. We will be bringing forward the building regulations to make sure that we force them to do so next year.

So, I completely agree with you. I'm very happy to say very good things about The Wallich. The young man I was speaking of, who I met in your constituency yesterday, Mike, was working for The Wallich and helping with all of the good work he does. Matt's Cafe is, counterintuitively, run by an excellent young man called Tom. It's in St Matthew's Church and it's Matt's Cafe, and it's an excellent drop-in centre for anyone associated with homelessness or homelessness support. And it provides excellent food, and if you're able to pay for it, you can, and if you aren't able to pay for it, then you can have it for whatever you can afford or for nothing, and it's a commendable service we look to spread out. It's a very good example of a place that's friendly and welcoming, but which also allows you to access all the myriad services that you might require in order to get your life back on track.

So, Matt's Cafe is a classic example of examples right around Wales where a host of services come together, so GPs, the outreach nurses, the drug addiction and substance abuse people, the mental health people, healthy living and eating people, relationships—all sorts of things you can find at Matt's Cafe. I feel as if I'm going to break into a rock song, although I think that one was called 'Alison's Cafe'. But I cannot commend that model enough, and it works really well for the centre of Swansea.

In terms of finance, we gave the most generous housing support grant ever in the last financial year, and despite the temptation by every Member of the Senedd to do so, I'm not going to anticipate the draft budget, so you will have to just wait until my colleague Rebecca Evans says more about the next budget. But we are already at the point where we've got the most supportive housing support grant ever. And in terms of the definition, absolutely, and that's why the numbers have gone up so dramatically. This isn't about rough-sleeping; this is about anyone who does not have a permanent home where they can feel safe and well.