Dave is a campaigner on issues of housing and homelessness. Dave believes Wales is in the throes of a housing crisis.

His work with the homeless leaves him in no doubt that homelessness is on the increase, -homelessness here has doubled since 1997, although the official figures record only the people registered as homeless and not those living in hostels or on the streets.

House prices have risen to the point where first-time buyers can no longer even get onto the house-buying ladder. Instead they are forced into private rented accommodation at exorbitant prices.

Yet the Assembly Government's response has been to push local authorities into transferring their council housing stock.

Instead of restoring the power of local authorities to build housing for those who want or need to rent, the government has transferred responsibility to housing associations while at the same time cutting their building grants.

The result has been that almost no new council houses or flats have been built in Wales since 1997, while housing associations have reduced their building programmes by four-fifths.

In the absence of new social housing, waiting times have rocketed in some areas to posthumous lengths of 80 years and more.

Wales desperately needs more housing, particularly public and social sector housing with security of tenure for the homeless, the unemployed (discriminated against by many private landlords), workers on low pay and the elderly.

The urgent priority, therefore, is to defeat all further attempts by local councils to transfer their remaining housing stock to third-party landlords.

In any transfer ballots, tenants should have the 'fourth option' to remain council tenants with their local authority carrying out necessary repairs.

The National Assembly should take the lead in supporting the tenants movement and demanding the powers and financial resources to revive public sector house building and management in Wales.

Extra funds could be secured for repairs and new building through a campaign, led by the Welsh Assembly, to break central government's ring-fencing of the proceeds from council house sales.

Ultimately, all legislative powers in relation to housing policy should be transferred from Westminster to the National Assembly.

These policies can be afforded through: * Establishing a Windfall Tax targeted at banks and oil companies whose annual profits are in excess of £50 billion.

* Increasing corporate taxation from its current low levels.

* Withdrawing from the European Union thereby saving Wales approximately £200 million a year.