, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Absolutely. Part of the designation process is to go through all of the pros and all of the cons, understand what those pros and cons are and take full account of the pros and cons, to see what can be done to overcome any cons, to see what can be done to…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Diolch, Llyr. The designation of a national park in north-east Wales is a programme for government commitment. We have asked NRW to undertake a programme, including detailed assessment, engagement and consultation. This will inform a final decision, expected…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
We're aware of the pet insurance clauses, for example, in the UK Government's Renters (Reform) Bill for England, so we will be considering whether there's something we can do there. I will just reiterate to you that a landlord cannot unreasonably withhold a…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Carolyn. Under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, landlords and contract holders can agree additional terms covering the keeping of pets. Any pet clause should allow a contract holder to ask for permission to keep a pet, and the landlord is not…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you very much, Vikki, for that. This is, clearly, a very difficult and distressing time for all of the residents affected on the Gower estate, and we can only imagine what they must be going through as a result of that. You do want to feel that your…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for that question. The survey work undertaken to date indicates that the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC, in social housing stock in Wales is limited. It is important that all of the necessary survey work is completed so…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, thank you very much, Joyce. There have been 660 valid applications for the scheme to date, with 246 approvals so far, and that was at the beginning of May. So, it's going very well indeed. Forty five properties have been completed with all category 1…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Joyce. The Welsh Government has a number of interventions and funding streams to reduce the number of empty homes in Wales. These include our empty homes grant scheme, which aims to bring up to 2,000 long-term empty properties back into use, and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you, Hefin. That's a set of complicated things to look at there. In relation to third party certification, the building regulations are functional requirements and there may be a number of ways of proving compliance with them. Third party certification…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for the question. The Domestic Fire Safety (Wales) Measure 2011 has been implemented through the Building Regulations 2010. Data on the effectiveness of the legislation is not collected for building regulations purposes, but the fire and rescue…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Service charges are very much part of the discussion that we have about affordability. 'What is included in your rent, what is additional to your rent?' is one of the conversations we have. As part of the agreement on rent with our social landlords in Wales…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for the question. We’re currently doing quite a lot of work with the whole sector on how we will come to a standard, or indeed whether we’ll come to a standard; not everywhere in the UK has that kind of standard. It’s served us well in the past…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
I didn’t quite catch the end of that, I’m afraid, as there are noises off, but I think I got the gist of it. So, what we’re looking at there, Mark, is a way of ensuring that there is a supply of local housing, so that people who need to live and work in the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, so actually the paper that we put out was a Green Paper, so it wasn't a consultation paper, it was a call for evidence. We got that evidence in. We're now working on the production of a White Paper, which is due this July as part of our co-operation…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you for that, Mark. It's very interesting, the evaluation report, and we'll be looking at it very carefully, of course. But it's very interesting that it's not borne out by the statistics we're getting through Rent Smart Wales, and we need to get…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, thank you. And you're right, of course, different communities throw up different challenges in terms of finding a secure, safe home for everyone, and it is very important to find the right home. It's not just about four walls and a roof. That's why I was…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, a very good question, and it's something we've been working on for quite some time. My colleague, Joyce Watson, has been working for a very long time in the construction sector, trying to make sure that we take advantage of a very diverse population…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you very much for that. That is, indeed, a very complex situation. In fact, we've been able to work right down to individual site level right across Wales, to understand the impact on each site of the phosphate levels in the surrounding area, and where…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Diolch, Cefin. We are committed to increasing housing supply, ensuring people have homes that meet their needs now and in the future. Our programme for government commits to delivering 20,000 additional homes for rent in the social sector. Support for market…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you very much, Mark Drakeford, for that. We worked very hard together on what was a very complex set of proposals. It was very important indeed, as I'm sure you remember, to be absolutely accurate in releasing that information. We went through a long…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, absolutely. The planning system is blind to whether the application is from a public or private sector individual. I'm not going to comment on any individual planning application, but, in general, the planning system is blind to that, and we would of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Well, I think that's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Government does its budgets, frankly. We will be bringing forward the legislation in the autumn, as I have just said. The UK Government has not seen fit to contribute in any way to that…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, thank you very much. So, there’s a complex set of things to discuss there. So, the categorisation of the tips is done through the inspection regime. I can absolutely assure you categorically that it doesn’t make any difference who owns that tip. One of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you. The Welsh Government has made a significant investment in the safety of coal tips, introducing a regular inspection and monitoring regime and by making £44.4 million available for maintenance since 2022. We will modernise our legislation through…
, Plenary
Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning: Working with local government to deliver more affordable homes
Thank you, Jenny. I heard the interview with Andy Burnham and the article on Radio 4 this morning. I was very interested in the right to buy, so we've asked for a meeting with them to understand where they're coming from; it might be a powers issue or…
