12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
I have tried, Llywydd, many times, and I'm afraid they make me feel really ill.
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
I'm really sorry. I'll put my glasses on. Huge apologies. My problem is that I've arrived at that point in my life where I need two pairs of glasses, and I'm only carrying my reading glasses with me, so I'm afraid you're a bit of a blur in the distance, so…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
I'm so sorry. Shall I put my glasses on, would that help?
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Cefin. The short answer is yes, I am supportive of it—
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thanks, Cefin. I really appreciated the conversations we all had about what to do about council tax. Council tax is not a tax fit for purpose, I think we all agree. I can't quite remember where some of this fell, so forgive me, it might have been before or…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Well, I'm not going to indulge in that, Cefin; I'm really sorry that you've gone down that road. But what I would say is we really do believe in local government in Wales. We have never imposed a cap on council taxes here, because I think that local…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes. I'm not sure we'd call it a summit, but we've got something very similar going on. Again, I'm following a pattern that I had when I was last in this seat, really. I think, since you've got elected to this place, Peter, things have slightly changed. The…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
So, I've embarked on a sort of traditional tour of a new local government Minister around the local authorities. I met with nearly all of the local authorities in north Wales last week; I wasn't able to manage to set up a meeting with one of them. I also…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for that question, Peter. I mean, I completely agree with that, and I know you know that, because we worked very closely, as you say, during the COVID pandemic, when you were leader of Monmouthshire County Council and I was the local government…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Jenny. So, there are some complexities around who has the responsibility to list what. So, the decision to list a building is, obviously, based on the special architectural or historic interest of the building, which is obvious. Where it's not…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for the question, Jenny. The current legislation, including the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, and planning policy, which includes 'Future Wales: The National Plan 2040', 'Planning Policy Wales' and technical advice note, or TAN 24, on the…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Cefin. Sorry for not having that sorted out fast enough and making you repeat yourself. I am aware of it, yes. It very much follows the pattern of 'Future Wales: The National Plan 2040', the spatial plan for Wales, where we've been very keen to…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Sorry, I was on the wrong channel.
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
So, these are very much partnerships between the local authority and the Welsh Government, and it's the local authority that brings forward the ideas. So, we provide the placemaking grants. We provide them both regionally and to individual councils. For the…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Depot—thank you; very good. And it's really clever the way they've done it and the whole development is absolutely buzzing. I don't know if you've been, but I had an extremely pleasant coffee in the coffee shop there while we talked it through with some of…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, thank you, Joyce, I very much agree with that. I've recently had the benefit of visiting both of those projects and they were absolutely great. The Llandeilo one is open. It's transformed what was the historic fire and rescue service, fire engine place—I…
12 June 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for the question, Joyce. The focus of our Transforming Towns programme is the regeneration of our town centres, making them better places in which to live and work. Since 2020, we have awarded more than £49 million of grant and loan funding to…
5 June 2024 , Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee Report, 'Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales: 2023'
Yes. Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. I was simply saying that the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs and I are looking forward to receiving the report from NICW on flooding towards the end of this year, and we expect that their…
5 June 2024 , Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee Report, 'Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales: 2023'
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you very much for the opportunity to reply on behalf of the Welsh Government to this debate today to highlight the really important work of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales. I really would like to thank the…
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Coal tip and opencast mine remediation
So, one of the things we'll have to do is to make sure that the various regimes dovetail together, and it will be a matter for the committees in scrutiny to make sure that we've done that as well. So, an opencast mine that's operational is not a disused tip…
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Coal tip and opencast mine remediation
I absolutely support the sentiments behind the motion that's in front of us today. The amendment we've tabled is a nuance, I think, about the forthcoming legislative programme because it's already scheduled and coming in the autumn. Otherwise, we'd have just…
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Coal tip and opencast mine remediation
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank Plaid Cymru for bringing forward this very important debate, and Members for their contributions today? Wales does have a proud mining heritage, but its legacy has undoubtedly left us with over 2,500 disused coal spoil tips…
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Coal tip and opencast mine remediation
Formally.
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for that, Janet. Landlords, agents and tenants, as well as their representative bodies, will soon be invited to engage with the evaluation. It is an evaluation of the current working of Rent Smart Wales. It isn’t a consultation about widening the…
8 May 2024 , Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Janet. I recently commissioned a full external evaluation of Rent Smart Wales's performance. That evaluation is under way and it's due to report later this year.
