§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the level of homelessness in Wales; and what steps he is taking to alleviate the problem. [40516]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansI am very pleased that the level of homelessness in Wales continues to fall significantly. The recently published "Welsh Housing Statistics 1996", a copy of which is in the Library, recorded a fall in accepted cases of homelessness of 13 per cent. to 9,000 in 1995 and the proportion of priority acceptances at 65 per cent of this figure is the lowest recorded level since 1978.
We have a range of policies and initiatives in place in Wales to assist authorities in tackling homelessness and clearly these are working.