Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru

We have invested significant effort and funding into tackling rough-sleeping in Wales, not least through our support for Housing First. Our homelessness action group, chaired by Jon Sparkes, will advise on further action needed to address homelessness in all its forms, including specifically reducing rough-sleeping, this coming winter.

The Welsh housing quality standard has had a positive impact on all of our 226,000 social homes in Wales, ensuring that they are of a good quality and suitable for residents. At present 90 per cent of social homes in Wales, including those located in mid and west Wales, meet the standard.

I set out the next steps for strengthening local government in my statement in Plenary on 18 June.

We are investing over £20 million this year alone to support a range of statutory and non-statutory services, including Housing First to prevent and tackle homelessness. Our homelessness expert group has already convened for the first time and will focus on identifying our next steps in tackling all forms of homelessness.

The code of practice for the welfare of game birds reared for sporting purposes was last updated in January 2011. Officials have now set up a series of meetings with key stakeholders to review the code. This review is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

Natural Resources Wales publish a number of reports on their performance. These are available on their website. This is in addition to an assessment of progress and performance reviewed regularly by the NRW executive team and NRW board and are shared with my officials at their regular meetings.

I was pleased to attend Caerphilly council’sClean Air Day event on 20 June at Caerphilly castle, which educated over 600 local children about air quality. We are evaluating Clean Air Day in partnership with Global Action Plan who are undertaking research to help evidence the impact of the day. Findings will be available in September.

The nature recovery action plan and natural resources policy set out our priorities for reversing biodiversity decline. In South Wales East I recently announced over £1 million of funding for the A Resilient Greater Gwent project through the Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being scheme to help tackle the biodiversity crisis facing us all.