SENEDD members quizzed Mark Drakeford on housing issues in Wales during First Minister’s Questions today.

Plaid Cymru’s Mabon ap Gwynfor wanted to see a system to control rents in the private sector and asked Mr Drakeford if he accepted “that a new kind of rent control linked to the quality of housing could also work here in Wales.”

The First Minister replied that his government was open to exploring ideas to control private rents and wanted to draw evidence from around the world.

Welsh Labour’s Vikki Howells pointed to a Citizens Advice report, Left In The Cold, which found that one in four private renters are unable to heat their home to a comfortable temperature.

“This reflects casework with private renters waiting years, sometimes, to have heating fixed, having rooms badly affected by damp and being threatened with eviction if they complain,” she said.

Mr Drakeford said: “As a result of the actions taken by this Senedd, the problems that Vikki Howells has identified now have new solutions that tenants, particularly, can put to work.

“The Renting Homes Act provides tenants with the right not to pay rent during any period during which the dwelling is identified as unfit for human habitation.”

The questions followed housing charities in Wales demanding that the Westminster government raise housing benefits to keep pace with soaring rental costs.

The Bevan Foundation’s Dr Steffan Evans told the BBC that people faced “really difficult choices” which put them at risk of becoming over-extended financially or settling for “really poor-quality accommodation because that’s all they can afford.”