Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate this afternoon. I do acknowledge at the outset that drawing up a budget is a difficult task, and I do sympathise with the Minister. A budget does outline political priorities. This budget, therefore, has to be drawn up in the face of austerity 2.0. Once again, the Conservatives are looking to cut back on state support and force painful financial cuts at a time of significant financial hardship. Of course, it's the vulnerable and disadvantaged who will suffer most as a result of the cuts of the Conservative Government in Westminster. Not only is the Barnett formula failing and means that Wales isn't getting the funding owed to us, but the necessary capital funding is being denied to us as a result of projects such as HS2. Therefore, the budgetary envelope that should come to Wales is smaller than it should be. The truth is that austerity is a political choice. A state with financial sovereignty and a central bank doesn't have to force austerity on its people; it's a political choice to do so in order to keep the rich rich. And trying to compare a state budget with a personal budget—the household income—is utter nonsense, which either shows a lack of economic understanding or is a deliberate lie on behalf of the Conservatives.

To go to the details of this budget, it's no surprise for many of you that I will stand here today to talk about an issue that I'm passionate about, namely housing. I've had a number of conversations with the sector and I've identified a number of priorities for short, medium and long-term needs. There is much that needs to be funded, but in prioritising these things, we will see that we need to increase the housing support grant, introduce a support programme for people at risk of losing their homes, a comprehensive package for the social housing sector so that they can reach the necessary standards in light of the huge increase in inflation and costs, and introduce a package to support people to buy homes. Yhese aren't new ideas from my part. I want to take a moment to recognise the role of previous Ministers, particularly Jocelyn Davies and Ieuan Wyn Jones, who developed policies that are not dissimilar when Wales was at the centre of a financial crisis back in 2008. The work of Jocelyn Davies and Ieuan Wyn Jones meant that thousands of people had been able to remain in their homes, avoiding homelessness. The valuable lessons from that time have been learned and adopted this year, and this is clear in the £40 million over two years in order to ensure that people can remain in their homes during this cost-of-living crisis, which follows directly from the work of Jocelyn.

It's clear that the work of Plaid Cymru in the co-operation agreement is seen here, and I'm pleased to see our priority of tackling the long-term housing crisis being prioritised. Seeing £63 million in addition provided to the support-to-buy scheme is going to make a significant difference, meaning that young families can afford homes in their communities in Dwyfor or the Vale of Glamorgan and every other community in Wales. Further to that, the £59 million over two years for the social housing sector, to enable them to meet environmental targets and to increase standards in the housing sector, is something that I warmly welcome. But the cost-of-living crisis is having an impact on people today, and I don't need to point out the fact that we are seeing homelessness increasing, with far more people in temporary accommodation. The services trying to tackle this particular crisis are creaking, with homelessness staff having trouble in making ends meet. So, it is a huge disappointment to see that there hasn't been an increase in the budget for the housing support grant. As things stand, it is certain that we will see these services shrinking, and the result will be seeing more people sleeping on our streets because the crucial service to support them isn't available. That is a huge disappointment.

I finally want to briefly mention agriculture. The new agriculture Bill is currently going through the Senedd, with Stage 2 upon us. The Bill is—[Inaudible.]—and the current environmental climate is a central part of this. Because of this, farmers will have to adapt some practices in a very brief period of time, so it's also disappointing that no capital budget has been allocated to enable our farmers to make these changes in the brief time that we have available. Thank you.