James Evans has pressed the Welsh Government on how it plans to increase the supply of homes in his constituency, warning that responsibility for delivering new housing is spread across several ministerial departments.

Speaking in the Senedd on Wednesday, Mr Evans asked the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government how more homes would be made available for people in Brecon and Radnorshire.

Responding, Jayne Bryant said the Welsh Government was investing record levels of funding in social housing during the current Senedd term.

She told members: “We are providing record social housing funding of over £2 billion over this Senedd term, including £466 million in 2025-26 alone.

“During this term of government, as at 2024-25, Powys has received almost £68 million in social housing grant. This funding will contribute to the delivery of over 800 homes. Their allocation for 2025-26 is over £13.5 million.”

Ms Bryant added that other schemes were also being used to expand access to housing, including Help to Buy - Wales, Homebuy - Wales, Leasing Scheme Wales and the Welsh Government’s empty homes grant.

But Mr Evans argued that many of the factors affecting housebuilding fall outside the housing portfolio itself, raising questions about how different parts of government work together to tackle the problem.

“Even though you hold the portfolio responsibility for housing, a lot of the levers for actually delivering the building of homes sits outside your portfolio,” he said.

He pointed to issues such as apprenticeships and the availability of skilled tradespeople, as well as planning and environmental regulation, which are overseen by other ministers.

“So, I’m interested, Cabinet Secretary, because you’ve missed your homes target year after year, in how you work across Government to bring all those portfolios together, to actually deliver the homes that Wales needs,” he said.

Mr Evans added that while the housing secretary often faces criticism when targets are missed, “a lot of the levers for delivering these homes don’t sit with you”.

“I’d like to know how you are going to bring all Government together, in the last embers of this Government, to see how we can deliver homes for people right the way across my constituency,” he said.

In response, Ms Bryant acknowledged that housing delivery relies on cooperation across several government departments.

“As you rightly say, there are a number of levers that sit outside of the portfolio,” she said, pointing to the work of the Welsh Government’s affordable homes taskforce.

She said she chairs the taskforce’s implementation group, which brings together ministers, local government representatives, housebuilders and other experts to address issues such as planning, skills and apprenticeships.

“We do work as a Cabinet collectively as well on the priority that is our target around building more social homes, which we will reach by November this year, which is no mean feat,” she said.

Ms Bryant also said there was “a really strong pipeline of projects coming forward”, adding that the government was continuing to increase investment while working with partners to deliver more homes across the country.

Speaking after the session, Mr Evans said: “People across Brecon and Radnorshire are crying out for more homes they can actually afford, yet year after year we see promises that don’t translate into delivery on the ground.

“Getting homes built isn’t just about one Minister or one department. Planning, skills, apprenticeships and the workforce all have to line up and right now too many of those levers sit in different parts of government.

“In the last stretch of this Senedd term, Ministers need to bring all of this together and focus on delivery, because families across my constituency can’t wait any longer for the homes they need.”