Ms Mary Hayes:

We have seen a relentless increase in homelessness. We have not kept pace in being able to provide housing supply quickly enough, in addition to affordable private rental, which is another reasonable alternative to homeless accommodation. To that end, we are looking at how much we are spending on private emergency accommodation.

It will not entirely replace our dependency on private emergency accommodation but the idea is that we would at least purchase or acquire some buildings to reduce that cost on the revenue.