SCHEMES to help people move from tempoary accomodation into homes of their own are being supported by a £65 million fund.

The money is available to Welsh councils and registered social landlords to create much-needed extra housing capacity across Wales and is intended to reduce the numbers having to be housed in accommodation such as bed and breakfasts.

The programme will bring more than 1,000 additional homes into use over the next 18 months. Almost half will be long-term or permanent homes with the others offering good-quality homes suitable for use by individuals and families for a number of years.

The projects will including bringing unused and mothballed properties back into use, converting buildings into "good quality accommodation" as well as making use of modern construction methods for "medium-term forms of housing".

In Cardiff the council has temporarily installed 200 one to three-bedroom modular flats, which can be easily constructed  taken down and erected elsewhere, on a site where it is building a housing estate to provide longer term accommodation in the interim period.

The first wave of the scheme has already seen £25m spent while the remainig £40m will be used for schemes that are to be completed over the next 18 months.

Climate change minister Julie  James, who has responsibility for housing, said: "Where people are in hotel or B&B-based temporary accommodation, in particular, it can be difficult for them to move on with their lives. We need more high-quality interim accommodation options – places they can call their own – to allow people to get on with their lives, while we support them to find a permanent home.

“I am making up to £40m of capital funding available to support a range of initiatives by our local authorities and registered social landlords to help ensure even more people have a place to call home.

“These projects will provide much-needed, good-quality accommodation to help ease the pressure on housing services in the medium term."

The government says the programme complements work to build 20,000 more low-carbon permanent social homes during the current five-year Senedd term.