The Prince of Wales has made reference to his wife’s expertise while visiting a homelessness project in Sheffield.

When the topic of childhood was raised by the city council’s chief executive Kate Josephs, William immediately remarked on the success of Kate’s early years projects.

Holding his palms out and smiling, he said: “We’re venturing into my wife’s territory. She needs to be sat here to hear this.”

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His words come as Kate continues to recover from January’s abdominal surgery, with the palace having said she will not return to public duties until after Easter.

Her long absence has sparked social media speculation and a Mother’s Day photo released of her and her three children did not help, causing its own controversy after it was revealed to have been edited.

Yesterday, The Sun published a photo of the couple on a visit to a farm shop in Windsor.

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William would have been hoping to put all of that aside as he focused on Homewards, the programme he launched last year, which aims to end homelessness.

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Sky’s royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills said Prince William is known to be “deeply frustrated” by the continuing conjecture about Kate’s absence.

“But today, for him, it was a case of ‘look, get the game face on, get on with the job’.”

She added: “It has to be said, if you didn’t know all of the noise that was going on, you wouldn’t know that there was anything wrong in the background – he really wanted to focus on the issues being faced here in Sheffield.”

The future king unveiled Homebase’s pledge of £1m support in the form of up to 1,500 starter packs, which could include paint, furniture, flooring and furnishings to help tenants make their property into a home.

William also sat down with landlords to talk about what they are doing to end homelessness.

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A group including Keystone Property Group, Places for People, Letzmove, My Landlord Cares and Arches Housing have promised more than 30 three and four-bedroom properties for families who are at risk of losing their homes.

Sheffield is one of six areas involved in Homewards – the others are Newport, South Wales, Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, the south London Borough of Lambeth, Belfast and Aberdeen.

Each of them will deliver a housing project over five years using new methods to meet local needs.

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