Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 28 September 2022.
I’m grateful for that question. I do think that the £1 million that has been announced is really important in terms of helping to support some of these warm banks, with things that local authorities will seek to do, but also other organisations—churches, third sector organisations, other faith venues and so on. Obviously, we will monitor the application of that fund to understand take-up, but I think that it won’t just be that fund, however, that is supporting warm banks; it will be things that local charities, that community councils and others will be doing from their own resources as well. But I share the Member’s disbelief, really, that we’re talking about creating places for people to just go and stay warm this winter because it’ll be too expensive for them to say warm at home. Obviously, we’ll monitor the uptake of that and I’ll perhaps ask my colleague the Minister for Social Justice to provide an update to colleagues about the fund and how it can be accessed.