6. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Ukraine Humanitarian Response

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 14 February 2023.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 4:40, 14 February 2023

As you reflected, 24 February marks a year since Putin's illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine. In your update on Ukraine here three weeks ago, you stated that:

'The UK Government has announced that there will be a new UK £150 million fund for Ukrainian housing support during 2023-24, but details are currently scant',  where the UK Government had announced a new support package for Ukrainians of over £650 million, including an increase in payments to £500 per month to Homes for Ukraine hosts.

In response to me, you also stated that you had met Felicity Buchan, the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Homelessness, together with the Scottish Government's Minister for refugees, before Christmas and that you had a further meeting scheduled with Felicity Buchan the following week. In your statement today you referred to that meeting, confirmed that these issues were discussed, and that you put forward a proposal. What was this proposal? And what, if any, indicative timescales were given to you for a response?

Although the Welsh Government's supersponsor scheme was temporarily paused on 10 June 2022, what is the current position with this, where, as you've indicated, 6,437 Ukrainians, sponsored by the Welsh Government and Welsh households as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, have arrived in Wales and almost half of the refugees in Wales are sponsored by the Welsh Government's supersponsor scheme?

It is reported that many Ukrainian refugees in Wales have spoken to the media about the difficulties that many of them are having finding and maintaining housing accommodation. For example, Ukrainian refugees who've had to leave their sponsor homes have been told that welcome centres aren't an option for safe accommodation, and landlords appear reluctant to take on refugee tenants due to concerns over stability of future earnings. I'm quoting here from newspaper articles, and therefore I don't know how secure the progeny of those stories is. But, responding to you three weeks ago, I also referred to the case of the mum and daughter who fled fighting in Ukraine but now face homelessness as their Welsh sponsor pulls out, who can't afford private rent and who fear they could end up on the streets.

I further noted that the Irish Government has announced that it would be delivering 700 modular homes for Ukrainian refugees this year, including 200 accommodating 800 Ukrainian refugees, built by Easter, as it scrambles to find housing. Given that Wales has a long-standing affordable housing supply crisis, will the Welsh Government be considering this option alone or with the UK Government? And if so, what is it currently doing about it?

I again referred in my response to you three weeks ago to the help being provided for Ukrainian refugees by Wrexham's Polish integration support centre, and your then forthcoming visit, which I attended, to the north Wales Ukraine response by charity Link International, and to the response to the invasion of Ukraine by the Catholic Bishops Conference for England and Wales. Last Friday, I visited a primary school in Denbighshire with my colleague Laura Anne Jones, shadow education Minister, when the headteacher referred to their Ukrainian pupils, whose families were supported and housed locally by the Red Cross. I'm also an honorary of Flint and Holywell rotary club and, over the last 12 months, rotary clubs have donated over £6 million in cash and kind and given more than 100,000 volunteer hours supporting Ukraine and its people.

Finally, therefore, will you provide an update on how you're ensuring that all these wider contributions are integrated into the Welsh Government's Ukraine humanitarian response?