, Minister for Climate
Change: I am proud of the approach we took in Wales during
the pandemic to support people experiencing homelessness.
Local authority homeless and housing support teams, together with
their third and public sector partners worked tirelessly and
delivered safe accommodation to minimize the harm presented by
Covid 19. The ‘no one left out’ approach saved lives and
accelerated our work to transform homelessness services as part
of our long-term ambition to end homelessness in Wales.
I have since been clear that there can be, and will be, no going
back.
Whilst this approach is the right one, I do recognise the
considerable pressures in the housing system and the need
therefore to develop and build on this approach as part of our
wider transformation of homelessness services.
The pressures on housing services have been exacerbated by not
only the pandemic, but the humanitarian crisis arising from the
war in Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and wider inflationary
pressures impacting all services. This has meant the number of
people presenting to homeless services in need of support
continues to be considerable. As a result, local authorities
across Wales remain dependent on temporary accommodation
solutions to ensure people are accommodated and are not forced to
sleep rough. These temporary solutions can vary considerably,
from hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation to a social or
private home provided on a temporary basis.
We remain committed to moving away from the use of temporary
accommodation in the longer term, but given the ongoing
pressures, I recognise there is a continuing need for temporary
solutions in the short term, whilst maintaining our focus on
preventing homelessness in the first place, together with
increasing housing supply to enable move-on from temporary
accommodation.
This is why we provided an additional £6m for discretionary
homelessness prevention funding to local authorities last year
and have continued the funding into this year as part of the over
£210m we are investing in homelessness prevention and housing
support services. It is also why last summer in response to these
pressures, we established the Transitional Accommodation Capital
Programme (TACP) to bring forward more good quality accommodation
at pace to help move people from temporary accommodation into
longer term homes where they can settle. In its first year,
TACP supported local authorities and Registered Social Landlords
(RSLs) with £76.4million to bring forward 936 more homes, working
flexibly and responsively to deliver better quality,
longer-term accommodation. I am proud of the innovative and
responsive approach this Programme has enabled in providing more
good quality homes at pace to respond to housing pressures,
including the Ukraine crisis.
I am pleased to confirm today, that working in partnership with
local authorities and RSLs, we will be building on this
important work this year, bringing forward more homes
through further investment in TACP to reduce the numbers of
people living in temporary accommodation and ensuring people in
Wales have a place they can call their home.
Our immediate focus will be supporting local authorities to
increase move-on from hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation
and reducing the use of this particular form of temporary
accommodation. We will be expanding the temporary
accommodation data publication, to include a breakdown of the
types of temporary accommodation being used across Wales, to
support this work. Our understanding of the extent to which such
settings are used across Wales, will inform and drive solutions
to reduce reliance on them – and align our capital investments to
support this.
Given this focus and continued investment in more homes, together
with consideration of our overall ambition to end homelessness
and move to rapid rehousing, I do not feel that an amendment to
the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (Wales) Order
2015 would be an appropriate step or justifiable in consideration
of the impact it has on the lives of people placed in Bed &
Breakfasts and Hotels. As such, further to the consultation
undertaken last year, the legislation will remain as it currently
stands, with two- and six-week time limits in place.
We will continue to work collaboratively with our partners in
local authorities, RSLs and the third sector, to be flexible,
innovative and responsive, in order to collectively overcome the
challenges we face and ensure people across Wales have a place to
call home.
