6. What steps is the First Minister taking to increase the number of new homes built in Wales? OQ59291

I thank the Member for the question. The Welsh Government continues to make record levels of capital investment available to support house building. The industry faces significant headwinds in construction cost inflation, labour shortages and global supply chain gaps. The Minister met with Welsh house builders last week to discuss issues facing the sector.

Diolch. First Minister, increasing house prices have left young people feeling they've been effectively priced out of the market, with many worried that they will never be able to get their feet on the housing ladder. It's clear to everyone that the target of building 12,000 homes a year here in Wales has been missed repeatedly for years. Your Government only delivered 5,273 houses in 2021-22, 90,000 are languishing on social housing waiting lists, and less than 1,000 homes were completed in October to December of last year, the second lowest level for the period since targets began in 1974. Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine dependent children aged 16 or under are in temporary accommodation. We're talking bed and breakfast, we're talking hotel rooms, and this number is rising—it has trebled compared to a year ago. This is a failing at the highest level of this Welsh Labour Government. So, what urgent action are you as the First Minister and, indeed, your Welsh Labour Government, taking to address these failures? And let's hope that you can respond in a professional manner—[Laughter.]—that tells people in Wales that the dream of local home ownership is achievable under your Welsh Labour Government.

Well, I thank the Member, of course, for her supplementary question. I think she'll find, actually, that, in the latest statistics, house completions in Wales in the last quarter were above pre-pandemic levels—[Interruption.] Well, actually, they were. No, they were. The Member asked me for a professional reply, and let me assure her that I will have done my homework; I have the figures in front of me, that, in the last quarter, completions of house building in Wales were above the quarter immediately before the pandemic. Housing starts are down in the last quarter; they are down in 10 of the 12 UK nations and regions, and they are down, says the house builders organisation, because of the impact of the disastrous September mini-budget, which has increased mortgage costs, increased interest costs and led, across the whole of the United Kingdom, to a reduction in house building starts.

The Member asks what we will do in Wales. Well, let me give her just one example. In England, Help to Buy has now been abolished. That form of help no longer is on offer; it hasn't been since October of last year. Here in Wales, Help to Buy—Wales has been extended for a further two years. It was raised by house builders very positively in the discussions with the Minister on 13 March. Since Help to Buy—Wales began in Wales, nearly 14,000 people have been able to move into homes that otherwise would not have been built. I'm very glad that that scheme is still available to purchasers in Wales, because it means that house builders are able to go on providing those homes. I'm sure that there are many people in England who wish it was still available there as well.