Diolch. As we've heard from Mabon ap Gwynfor, the cost-of-living crisis currently hitting all our communities is directly interlinked with the severe housing crisis in Wales, with devastating consequences for our young people especially. And from the conversations we've all been having, out knocking doors over the past week and through our case work, I'm sure that you have found, like I have, that one of the main ways that people have been experiencing the impact of the cost-of-living crisis is through the huge hikes in their energy bills and the consequences of not being able to afford to pay those bills.

The worrying conversations on the doorstep and anxious e-mails from constituents are mirrored by the evidence from those agencies that are trying to help. In March, for example, Citizens Advice helped more people with fuel debt issues than during any single month for the last five years. Record inflation is also pushing up everyday costs. Just this week, food price inflation hit its highest rate for 11 years.

The limited action able to be taken by Welsh Government to mitigate the impact on household budgets and debt is welcome, but even after taking into account the help available, a single person on benefits will still be spending a quarter of their standard allowance, the basic rate of universal credit, on energy bills. Looking ahead to October, a single person on benefits could end up spending between 39 per cent and 47 per cent of their standard allowance on energy bills. The definition of fuel poverty is spending more than 10 per cent of your income on energy. So, we know that the tough times are already here and facing too many households in Wales, and they're going to get even tougher. The situation in Ukraine, the actions of Putin and the inaction of the Westminster Government to target help where it's most needed is making a bad situation worse. And with rents and house prices rising, people are having to choose between moving into properties where rents are unsustainably high, moving into low-cost, low-quality properties or face homelessness, and we know that homelessness disproportionately affects certain groups in our society, further compounding the inequalities they face.

LGBTQ+ young people, for example, are disproportionately over-represented in the wider homelessness population, more likely to leave stable accommodation to escape emotional, mental or sexual abuse and are at greater risk of harm when homeless than non-LGBTQ+ young people. Despite this, they are underserved by support services designed to respond to their specific needs. According to Stonewall Cymru, LGBTQ+ people often have poor experiences of housing services, including staff making assumptions about their sexual orientation or gender identity or not having sufficient information about the housing issues they might face.

The Albert Kennedy Trust found that 24 per cent of the youth homelessness population across the UK identified as LGBT. By contrast, ONS statistics suggest that just 4.1 per cent of the population are LGBT. In Wales, statistics for 2017-18 demonstrate that 9 per cent of the young people accessing Llamau supported housing services classify themselves as LGBT. In addition to the harrowing picture painted by the statistics already mentioned, End Youth Homelessness Cymru's 'Out on the Streets' report found that LGBTQ+ young people are four times more likely to become homeless than their non-LGBTQ+ peers—four times more likely.

Homelessness is traumatic and challenging for anyone, but LGBTQ+ young people often also have to cope with homophobic, biphobic and transphobic violence and discrimination. As a result, they experience a greater risk of psychological harm than non-LGBTQ+ people and are more likely to develop substance abuse problems, be exposed to sexual exploitation and experience greater difficulty obtaining safe shelter, staying in school, earning money and accessing social support and health services. It's concerning at the very least that LGBTQ+ homelessness is not mentioned once in the Welsh Government's homelessness strategy. 

How can we not take every action possible to ensure the factors that lead to homelessness, as have been outlined this afternoon, are addressed urgently by both the UK and Welsh Governments? How many reports, how many statistics, how much research have been shared in this place and in the House of Commons over the years? But it took a once-in-a-century event—a global pandemic—for real action to be taken to end homelessness, thus proving this really is just a matter of political will. Housing first should of course be the default option for anyone with complex needs who is experiencing homelessness, and the Welsh Government should appoint a national director for housing first policy to achieve this throughout Wales. 

I urge Members to support our motion. We don't need to accept the situation—indeed, we can't—and we need to look our young people and our most vulnerable people in the eye.