First off, I would like to reiterate and endorse the words that have already been spoken, and I would like to put on record our thanks, as Members here in the Senedd, to those of you who have been over to see at first hand the need over there. I think that it's fair to say that the brutality of this horrendous war is borne most painfully of the backs of those defending their homeland, the civilian population and many, many women and children. Many will have been too young to even understand why their lives have been suddenly and brutally uprooted.

The warmth and generosity, however, of communities right across the United Kingdom has shown us at our best. Even in my own constituency, across Aberconwy, local people were very quick to want to offer their hand of support, their homes as a roof over the heads of those fleeing Putin's appalling war in Ukraine. They showed that kindness and warmth—the same kindness and warmth that has always been part of the British spirit.

However, there are still some issues with the day-to-day settlement and the integration schemes, and it's those that I would like to speak about today, as the shadow Minister for housing, because these accommodation issues do worry me. Many Ukrainian refugees have spoken to news outlets, such as WalesOnline, about the difficulties that many of them have now in finding and maintaining housing accommodation. There are millions of displaced people who are still, to this day, moving from one temporary location to another, unsure when they’ll ever return home.

Out of the 8 million people who fled Ukraine, 7,000 found themselves in Wales. Half of the refugees in Wales are sponsored by the Welsh Government's supersponsor scheme, and I’m really grateful for that scheme. They’ve spent the majority of their stays, however, in hotels and similar venues, which quite frankly were never designed for long-term stays. The other half have come via the household Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. Ukrainian refugees who have had to leave their sponsor homes have been told that welcome centres aren’t an option for safe accommodation if they arrived in the UK as part of the supersponsor scheme. So, with local authorities advising them to look at the private rental market, some landlords appear reluctant to take on refugee tenants due to concerns over the stability of future earnings.

Another Ukrainian refugee talked about the experience, saying,

'in the beginning for me everything was tyrannical and could easily break an ordinary person...The system to some extent offends and humiliates the dignity of a refugee and gives an opportunity to a sponsor.'

Some of those sponsors are landlords who, at any time,

'can throw the tenant out on the street or can arrange unbearable conditions and the right to interfere in someone’s personal life. It is a system that can implicitly wake up unacceptable human qualities such as swagger, arrogance and other negative aspects' that some Ukrainians are now experiencing. So, I do hope that, in the response, you can actually provide us with some reassurances as to how you have been dealing with this.

There is clearly still some lack of joined-up co-ordination regarding the implementation of support and the integration of schemes for Ukrainian refugees. However, the crux of the problem here in Wales is that we simply do not have enough homes. The Welsh Government is achieving less than 50 per cent of the new dwellings target annually, so we need to really look at this. Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Government, health boards and local authorities already own land on which houses could be quickly erected, and I take the point that my colleague Mark Isherwood said earlier about modular housing. The time has come for a home building taskforce to be formed to drive quick projects such as factory-made modular housing on publicly owned land. We have a major housing crisis that is now seeing those refugees stuck in hotels, not homes. It is time for us all to work together to overcome the red tape that is holding back a roof above the head of these most vulnerable individuals. The eyes of the world are watching us and we have to get this right. Thank you.