Local Government and Housing Committee

Thank you very much. Welcome and good afternoon.

Welcome to this afternoon's meeting of the Local Government and Housing Committee. The public items of this meeting are being broadcast live on Senedd.tv and all participants will be joining by video-conference. The meeting is bilingual and simultaneous translation is available. A Record of Proceedings will be published as usual. Aside from the procedural adaptations relating to conducting proceedings remotely, all other Standing Orders remain in place. We have received apologies from the Chair, John Griffiths, and from Carolyn Thomas. Mike Hedges is substituting for Carolyn.

On behalf of the committee and the clerking team, I'd like to express our deepest condolences with Carolyn Thomas after the loss of her son. Our thoughts are with Carolyn and her family at this very sad and difficult time.

Before we move on to the next item, are there any declarations of interest? I can see no declarations of interest.

That means that we move on to papers to note. So, we have seven papers to note, a number of papers, and they're all listed in the paper pack and accessed on the internet. Are Members content to note all of those papers together? I can see that all Members are content. Are there any items to raise on that? Mabon.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to note paper 3.3 from the Minister, Julie James. I want to express my appreciation that she's provided us with some information, and I'll read that sentence:

'In the interest of being as open as possible with the Committee, I understand that UK Ministers are due to table further amendments to the [Social Housing (Regulation)] Bill at House of Commons Report stage.'

So, we will have to continue the legislative consent motion process. But I do appreciate that she forewarned us of that.

Diolch, Mabon, and yes, I appreciate you raising that point. So, are Members all content to note those papers now, together? Yes, I see that all Members are content.

So, we'll now move on to item 4, which is to proceed into private session. So, in accordance with Standing Order 17.42, the committee's invited to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting so that we can consider our draft report on homelessness. Are there any objections to this? I see there are no objections, so, I suggest that we now proceed to meet in private.