We are delighted that the Welsh Government has released its draft budget for 2019-20, in which funding for housing and homelessness services has been protected, with a commitment to protecting the funding until the end of this assembly term in 2021.

When Welsh Government released their draft budget for 2018-19 in October last year, they proposed that housing and homelessness funding be combined with nine other funding streams into one Early Intervention: Prevention and Support Grant. For the past year we have been working alongside Cymorth Cymru, CHC and other colleagues in the housing sector as part of the #HousingMatters campaign.

The campaign called on Welsh Government to merge the original nine funding streams into two separate pots, rather than one, with one funding stream focussing on housing and homelessness.

We’re delighted that Welsh Government have listened to our arguments and have decided to protect funding for housing and homelessness services.

Frances Beecher, Chief Executive of Llamau said, “We’re delighted with the announcement that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Mark Drakeford, has made today and would like to thank Ministers for listening to our concerns about their proposed approach to funding housing and homelessness services. We will all be aware of the unprecedented rise in homelessness in recent years which means that we need, now more than ever, to provide services to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Wales.

This announcement gives us the opportunity to work with Welsh Government and local authorities to develop high quality services which prevent and redress homelessness. We will continue to work with Welsh Government and local authorities to ensure that services are delivered which support people across Wales to live independently and purposefully in their communities.”

We’d like to thank everyone who took action as part of the #HousingMatters campaign, which has led to today’s announcement.