The Welsh Government has announced its support for a pattern book developed by Tai ar y Cyd, a consortium of 23 Welsh social landlords. This innovative resource includes layouts for 15 house types and 18 variants, ranging from one-bedroom flats to four-bedroom houses, including fully wheelchair accessible options. The pattern book aims to facilitate the construction of energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-effective homes that meet Welsh Development Quality Requirements and Welsh Housing Quality Standards. The initiative emphasises the use of low-carbon and natural materials, particularly locally-sourced timber, to support regional economic growth and create green jobs. The Welsh Government has contributed £300,000 towards this project, complementing the £580,000 provided by consortium members, demonstrating a significant commitment to increasing the availability of affordable housing in Wales.

The Welsh Government has published an update on the implementation of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025, which is set to substantially come into force on 1 April 2026. The Act mandates the phased removal of profit from children’s social care services by preventing new for-profit providers from registering after this date and imposing restrictions on existing providers between 2026–30. Additionally, the legislation enables adults eligible for continuing NHS healthcare to request direct payments to arrange aspects of their care and introduces strengthened regulatory duties and enforcement powers.

The Welsh Government has published a letter to local planning authorities, announcing an update on the administration of electronic planning applications in Wales. The letter indicates that the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, has approved the transfer of electronic planning application services to PortalPlanQuest, aligning Wales with the commercial model used in England. This transition is scheduled to take effect on 29 March 2025.

The Welsh Government has announced progress on implementing all 23 recommendations from the independently chaired review of the Control of Agricultural Pollution Regulations (CoAP Regulations), completed in March 2025. Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MS has directed officials to establish a new task and finish group for stakeholder engagement, with calls for expressions of interest to be issued shortly. The Wales Government has committed £1.58m for Natural Resources Wales to enforce the regulations during the 2025–26 financial year, focusing on high-risk agricultural activities. Officials are also reviewing the cross-compliance process to ensure that farms are not penalised where they have implemented the necessary measures to reduce pollution risks under challenging conditions.

The Welsh Government's Minister for Children and Social Care, Dawn Bowden MS, has announced updates on the development of the National Multi-Agency Practice Strategy for Children, previously known as the National Practice Framework, following extensive stakeholder engagement. Stakeholders emphasised the need to strengthen multi-agency collaboration based on five strategic standards: infrastructure, strategy, learning, governance, and delivery. The Welsh Government acknowledges that further efforts are required to strengthen shared accountability for multi-agency practice, clarify the roles, responsibilities, and ownership of the Strategy, and establish clear governance arrangements for its implementation. Stakeholder feedback also indicated that the Strategy should not operate independently, and additional work is required to develop a joint accountability framework, practice notes and resources for practitioners. The Welsh Government intends to publish the Strategy and the first set of practice notes in April 2025, with further practice notes to be published throughout the year.

The Welsh Government has announced updates to building safety reforms in Wales, including progress to reform the design, construction, and occupation of buildings. The updates also include the introduction of tighter regulations for higher-risk buildings and a new regulatory system for registration and oversight of the building control profession. The next stage of reforms will address various aspects, including duty holder roles, gateways, and the golden thread of information, with a consultation scheduled for spring 2025. The government also outlined plans to introduce the Building Safety Bill before the summer recess in 2025, which will establish a new regime focused on the occupation phase of multi-occupied residential buildings, with Local Authorities regulating this phase in collaboration with Fire and Rescue Authorities.

The Welsh Government has announced plans to fundamentally reform water management and regulation in Wales, following recommendations from the Independent Water Commission Report. Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies confirmed the government will create a dedicated economic regulator for water in Wales and seek new powers enabling the Senedd to legislate independently for the water industry for the first time. A consultation on the regulatory model will launch later this year, with a shared transition plan to be developed with the UK Government and interim arrangements including a Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat.

The Welsh Government has announced the allocation of £1.5m to 25 organisations working with families in poverty across Wales, through its Child Poverty Innovation and Supporting Communities grant for 2025-2026. This initiative will link to at least one of the objectives of the child poverty strategy for Wales, strengthen capacity for collaborative efforts and improve communication and knowledge transfer in relation to addressing child poverty both locally and regionally. Recipients include: Abergele Community Action for youth employment initiatives, National Youth Arts Wales for creative workshops in Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent. The funded projects will enhance organisational capacity, align with the Child Poverty Strategy for Wales and improve local and regional communication.

The Welsh Government has allocated an additional £14.1m to support energy efficiency improvements in social housing, bringing total investment in the Optimised Retrofit Programme (ORP) to £107.1m for 2025. The programme funds measures such as insulation, efficient heating systems and renewable energy installations. Social landlords working through the programme monitor indicators such as mould and moisture levels to provide targeted support to vulnerable tenants. Since 2020, the ORP has funded 31,000 energy efficiency upgrades to social homes across Wales.

The Welsh Government has announced £145 million in additional funding for the National Health Service (NHS) Wales for the 2026–27 financial year, to be detailed in its first Supplementary Budget, due for publication on 23 June 2026. The package comprises £100 million in revenue funding intended to reduce NHS waiting times, £25 million in capital funding for up to 10 surgical and diagnostic hubs to be developed over four years and £20 million in capital funding for maintenance of the NHS estate.

The Welsh Government has announced an additional £15 million to begin extending free school meals to secondary school pupils in households receiving Universal Credit by removing the current annual net income threshold of £7,400. The funding, which forms part of the Welsh Government’s 2026-27 supplementary budget, includes £10 million for investment in school kitchens and dining facilities and £5 million to support the implementation and expansion of free school meal provision. From September 2026, parents of pupils in Years 7 and 8 are expected to be able to apply for free school meals under the revised eligibility criteria, regardless of household income. The Welsh Government says the investment represents the first phase of the planned expansion of free school meal eligibility to additional secondary school pupils.

The Welsh Government has allocated £24m in loan funding through its Land for Housing scheme to enable the development of more than 600 new homes across Wales. The funding supports land acquisition for both social and market housing developments, with loans being repaid and reinvested when construction funding is secured. The announcement highlights a previous £3m loan to Wales & West Housing for land in Grangetown, Cardiff, which led to the development of 100 affordable social rent homes. The scheme aims to contribute to the Welsh Government's target of delivering 20,000 new low carbon social homes during the current Senedd term.