, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Thank you, Lisa. The paper from Community Housing Cymru gives some quite disturbing statistics about the numbers of their tenants falling into serious arrears—about a quarter increase, a 25 per cent increase in the numbers who owe more than eight weeks' rent…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Thank you, Rob. Lisa, do you want to respond to that?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay. Thank you for that. Altaf, would you like to come back in on looking to the future?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Lisa, you represent 22 local authorities; how would you identify those who are operating best practice in terms of successfully engaging with debtors before it spirals out of control?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Can I bring Sioned Williams back in? Sioned, you wanted to ask a question.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Are you suggesting there is some additional legislative tool that you need, in the absence of wanting to send anybody to prison?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Oh, no. Hello, Lisa.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Before you go on, Altaf, I wonder if I could just come in and just sort of take us back a step before you go to the future. Lisa, I just wanted to ask you about the comments in your written evidence that 'Whilst no LA was keen to imprison debtors it did…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay. Thank you. Altaf, do you want to come in on your questions about the DAF?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay, thank you very much for joining us. Jane, are you able to pose some questions to Lisa?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Yes, I wondered if you could send us some information on specific incidents and the response you've had, because I'm sure outside this meeting we'll be wanting to follow this up, because obviously it's undermining the law that we've already established for…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay. Before I bring in, hopefully, Lisa Hayward, I just wanted to ask Rob what correspondence you had with either Rent Smart Wales, because clearly these landlords are in breach of their licence, and indeed with the police, who are seen to be blithely…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Very good. If we could now turn to Sarah Murphy.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Very good. I think Ken Skates wanted to come in now.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay. Very good. Moving on, I know that Sioned Williams wants to ask you some questions.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
Okay. That's fine. Before we move on to that, I just wondered if you could tell me what impact—. One of the big causes of people getting into debt is that they've got an addiction of some sort or another, whether it's to gambling, alcohol or drugs, which…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
What evidence do you have about which groups have been disproportionately affected by debt during the pandemic?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—public services
I'd very much, now, like to welcome Rob Simkins, who's from Shelter Cymru—their campaign manager—to our inquiry into debt and the pandemic, and we're hoping to be joined very shortly by Lisa Hayward from the Welsh Local Government Association. So, first of…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Papers to note
Before we move on to our first witness panel, I'd just like to ask Members to note the five papers that are on our agenda today as item 6—6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and I think it was 6.4—plus the late paper that was tabled from Hannah Blythyn in relation to the…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Thank you, Sarah. Any other declarations of interest? If not, I assume no. If, by any chance, I drop out of this meeting for technical reasons, I propose, in accordance with Standing Order 17.22, that Sarah Murphy will temporarily Chair the meeting while I…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome you all, Members and members of the public, to the meeting of the Equality and Social Justice Committee. In accordance with Standing Order 34.19, I've determined that the public are excluded from this meeting in order to…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Chair Designate of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW)
Thank you. Over to you, Llyr.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Chair Designate of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW)
Okay. And just lastly, your aspirations to work effectively with the UK Government, how are you going to do that in relation to transport infrastructure, given that the mainline railways are still controlled by the UK Government? But we still don't have the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Chair Designate of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW)
Okay. Your project board proposals sound interesting. What do you think are the key infrastructure issues that we face in Wales, both in the short term and the long term, and therefore what would be your priorities in terms of how many project boards can you…
