Item 6, the Homelessness (Priority Need and Intentionality) (Wales) Regulations 2022. I call on the Minister for Climate Change to move the motion—Julie James.

Motion NDM8096 Lesley Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Homelessness (Priority Need and Intentionality) (Wales) Regulations 2022 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 27 September 2022.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Members will be aware of the tremendous work undertaken since the start of the pandemic, which continues today, to ensure no-one is left out in our approach to homelessness. Through statutory guidance, we, along with local authorities, ensured that those experiencing homelessness were provided support and accommodation, ensuring a holistic response to the public health emergency. This shone a light on the scale of previously hidden homelessness across Wales. We now have a better understanding of the numbers of people experiencing homelessness.

Whilst the pandemic may have subsided for now, the need for support and housing for individuals who are experiencing homelessness definitely has not. Ahead of our planned wide-ranging reform of homelessness legislation, I'm hoping all Members will welcome and support this interim legislative amendment, and recognise it as an essential step in the eradication of homelessness in Wales. The Homelessness (Priority Need and Intentionality) (Wales) Regulations 2022 will amend the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, meaning a person who is street homeless and a person with whom they may reasonably be expected to reside is recognised as a person having priority need for support and accommodation. To put it in plain language, a person who is rough-sleeping is a person in priority need of accommodation. This regulation will also act to amend the Homelessness (Intentionality) (Specified Categories) (Wales) Regulations 2015, which provides for specified categories of persons a local authority can choose to have regard to by making a decision on whether they are intentionally homeless. This will mirror the current priority need categories and include those people who are street homeless.

Stepping out of the pandemic, we have to acknowledge the impacts of the current cost-of-living crisis and the risk of more people becoming homeless and losing their accommodation. This legislation is needed right now, more than ever, to ensure that we maintain the approach taken throughout the pandemic. I hope all Members will welcome this needed amendment to the legislation and support the motion presented here today. Diolch.

I thank the Minister for this announcement. It's one that we, in this party, welcome. It's certainly a step in the right direction towards abolishing priority need entirely.

To begin, I’d like to ask for clarity, please, regarding those people who are already in temporary accommodation. You say in your statement, and I will quote:

'However, with the easing of public health restrictions and associated public attitudes it is possible that those who were hidden prior to the pandemic, such as people sofa surfing, will revert from being supported by local authorities and partners, to relying instead on social networks to provide somewhere they can live. Given this uncertainty it is difficult to determine whether there will be significant further changes. Consequently, we consider that the core homeless population will remain relatively stable level for the time being.'

Now, could you explain what this means, please? Are you saying that those people in temporary accommodation will leave this accommodation and will sofa surf instead? Or, are you saying that local authorities are going to try to evict those who are not at risk of sleeping rough? Alternatively, can you confirm unambiguously that people in temporary accommodation will not be evicted only to face great uncertainty due to the new priority need category that you are introducing? Because, while we support the introduction of these regulations as a step in the right direction, the truth is that they will have unintended consequences. You are, to all intents and purposes, reintroducing the priority need policy once again. The danger is that this could lead to some local authorities reviewing the cases of those who are already in temporary accommodation and potentially concluding their responsibilities for those who are no longer considered at risk of sleeping rough. So, I’m sure you'll appreciate why we are seeking clarity on this point, please.

Furthermore, this will place a permanent expectation on local government. During the height of the COVID pandemic, local authorities received supporting funds, such as the COVID recovery grant, to help them accomplish the new expectations placed on them, such as the huge numbers of people that needed temporary accommodation. These funds have since been stopped, yet the duties continue. Local authorities are crying out for assistance; they tell us that they simply don’t have the resources to fulfil these duties, but there’s nothing in today’s statement about funding to allow them to carry out these duties. So, can the Minister tell us what funding will be made available for local authorities in order for them to achieve these ambitions set out in the regulations?

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, these regulations have unintended consequences, which could lead to more people finding themselves sofa surfing or homeless—not rough-sleeping, maybe, but certainly living in cramped accommodations with extended family and friends. This is a real risk and one that you are clearly content with, and I understand that—that's what politics is about and you have to make a decision based on merit. That's why we welcome these steps today. But can the Minister please square the circle of why the Government is happy to implement this policy, with the very real risk of unintended consequences, yet is unwilling to freeze rents and ban evictions, which has similar risks and unintended consequences? Diolch.

I call on the Minister to reply.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you for that contribution, Mabon. This isn't a statement, just to say—we’re introducing the regulations today—so, obviously, it doesn’t cover off a large number of the other surrounding items that you've asked questions on. Nevertheless, I will just cover them off. So, if we don't do this today, then, in advance of transforming homelessness law in its entirety, which we intend to do in this Senedd term, but which, obviously, is a big transformation in the way that we do things, then local authorities will revert to the pre-pandemic position where they will go back to the current list of priority need and intentionality. The purpose of this regulation today is to continue the 'everyone in' approach. We work very hard with local authorities to make sure that the people who have fallen out of 'everyone in' approach are also provided with a service. But make no mistake: the issue here is about prevention and continuing service. So, it is absolutely not the intention that people currently in temporary accommodation will fall out of that temporary accommodation, become homeless and have to go back in again. We are working with the local authorities to ensure that that is not what is understood, and also to make sure that, where at all possible, local authorities are engaged in preventative work and not telling people to go away and come back 56 days before they're going to be homeless and so on. I absolutely understand the pressure on them. We've given them an additional £10 million across the 22 local authorities already, and an additional £6 million for discretionary payments. So, we are working with them.

One of the reasons that we're trying to make a merit out of having to do this in steps is one of the things that the associated documents with these regulations set out—the explanatory memorandum and impact assessments, Mabon—is that, obviously, we will work with local authorities as a result of this interim step to understand the cost and to make sure that, when we bring the homelessness legislation forward, we'll be able to have all of the information about the financing of that inside that piece of legislation, which will, obviously, be a very large piece of legislation, completely reforming the process. So, I make no bones about the fact that this is a sticking plaster on a system that doesn't work, but it's a necessary sticking plaster to make sure that the most vulnerable don't fall out of the system altogether and it enables the local authorities to continue to match our 'everyone in'. So, I'm very grateful to the local authorities—they've worked very hard with us; I've had a number of meetings with them over the last few days to talk about these issues.

This is an entirely separate issue from the rent issue. I understand the point the Member makes entirely, but we have a very complex system with rent, and this is not designed in any way to touch that, either in social rent or in private-sector rent—this is entirely about the homelessness response of local authorities. So, whilst I understand why you're collating the two, obviously, I'm not going to answer those particular questions today; I'm more than happy to continue that discussion elsewhere.

So, just to finish off by saying that I really do thank you, Mabon, for your contribution today. I do think it’s important to make sure that local authorities understand the ramifications of this. But there is a clear need for these regulations for the interim period, and they will support people who are street homeless in Wales, so I hope that every Member will support them. Diolch.

The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? I don't see any objection. And therefore the motion is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.