, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you, Mark, and I can assure you that I’ll be making that argument around the housing support grant around the Cabinet table. I’ve heard directly from people and organisations, as you’ve outlined in your question, and we know that the housing support…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you, Mark. In terms of your point on affordable homes, I think affordable housing is, and really should be, a priority that we all support in this Chamber. In terms of the work we’re putting in on building more homes, we have—. Over the summer, I wrote…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you, Gareth. As I said in response to Luke Fletcher, in our recently published White Paper, we are not currently proposing to take forward national rent control measures. As I said, the White Paper is looking to approve the affordability of the private…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Diolch, Luke. The evidence from the Green Paper consultation, and evidence from the national rent cap in Scotland, indicates that rent control measures are unlikely to be effective and may have an adverse impact on the affordability and supply. Scotland have…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Diolch, Luke. Available evidence on rent controls in the private rented sector indicates such measures would likely to be ineffective or may even have negative impacts on affordability. As such, and as set out in our recently published White Paper, we are not…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you for that question and for raising your constituent's concerns and their situation, as well as Sam's in his initial question. Again, if a landlord is in breach of standards set out in the fitness for human habitation regulations, then the tenant…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Diolch, Sam, and I'm sorry to hear about the issues that your constituents have. Rent Smart Wales is responsible for the registration and licensing of landlords, ensuring that they’re trained and meet requirements in respect of being fit and proper persons…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Diolch. We are committed to using all available levers to ensure we maintain a viable private rented sector in Wales, offering high-quality and choice of accommodation. We have a number of grant schemes that are available to landlords or tenants and provide…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Diolch, Peredur. I'll just say that our financial position remains extremely challenging, and we know that we face difficult decisions as we prepare for the 2025-26 budget in the Senedd. We'll have a firm settlement to 2025-26 and a better idea about the…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Diolch, Mike. As I said, I fully acknowledge the challenge that councils have been facing over a number of years. Despite the level of support Welsh Government has been able to give over those years, we’ve been through a really long period of public sector…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Diolch, Peter. Thank you very much for your question. First of all, I’d like to put on record again my thanks to the workforce, who do a tremendous amount within local authorities, who work day in, day out, to provide services that we all value. I acknowledge…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Diolch, Peter. The Welsh Government works closely with local authorities to understand the pressures they face. Ministers meet regularly with leaders individually and through relevant groups. I will be meeting leaders individually over the coming months, with…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Diolch, Cadeirydd. And we'll make sure that everything that's been agreed to be sent to the committee will be done as soon as we can, as well, so that you have everything that we agreed.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Next week. There we go. Yes, definitely next week. And that is an area, in terms of the elderly, as well, I will be raising, on people who, perhaps, are digitally excluded.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you, Altaf. Yes, absolutely. It is important that residents are always thought of and put at the heart of everything. I mean, 'Digital by design?' was published—again, which we talked about—by Audit Wales in August. Although there weren't any specific…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Absolutely. This does fit with that aspect of collaboration, doesn't it, how we can work together. We talked about how important digital is for local authorities in terms of invest to save, but we also need to think about residents in communities and how easy…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
I shall reduce that to 'relatively good', sorry. But, if there are ones that are being spotlighted that can do this, it's understanding how can that be shared, or why are other authorities not doing that. So, I think that is an important piece of work to do…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Relatively good, okay.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
No, I agree with you, James, and you're following on from Lee. It is really important, and, as Lee's pointed out to us, Powys is one of the areas that is good. It becomes difficult to understand how that isn't—. If one can do it—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Well, I haven't been to—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
And, in my role, I'm keen to play my part in that, Lee, because what you say is absolutely right. It can't be left, to say, 'This is a nice to have' or, 'We don't understand it; let's forget about it', but it is important that we work together to do it…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Yes, I think we can do that, because I'm not familiar with the procurement details, so that would be—. We will write to the committee, if the Chair is happy.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Perhaps we could—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
[Inaudible.]
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session—Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
Thank you, James. As you said, the reason for the direct award was because there was a risk there could be a potential conflict of interest with other interested bidders—one of the lobby interest groups might make a successful bid that would challenge the…
