24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
And also, part of the WHQS—it's what we did for the first iteration of it as well—it's an economic development opportunity too. So, we overskill the workforce, making a market for the private rented sector and for homes in private ownership. Because…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
So, we're very keen to make sure that tenants can take advantage of any of the schemes that we have—the Warm Homes scheme, for example—and we advertise that to both landlords and tenants. The Warm Homes scheme improves the energy efficiency of the home, so…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes.
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
So, we've got the stats on the number of landlords, but also the number of properties, and that's an interesting correlation as well.
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Well, yes, a bit, but not as much as you'd expect. The figures are quite interesting, aren't they?
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
So, the new protections are bedding in, and we had a tail-end of the previous regime going through. So, as the Act beds in, it becomes more and more difficult to evict people, the notice periods are much longer, people have more redress to advice, and so on…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Well, because we think the renting homes Act is bedding in.
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
No, we don't have a timeline for when that might happen. For quite a long time, we thought that the UK Government was going to uplift the quality standards for the private rented sector and, unfortunately, they've reneged at the last minute on that. So, they…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
I'm not aware of any universities in Wales that have bought a property to rent to the students. Almost all of them have either retrofitted buildings they already have—so, Cardiff and Swansea universities, for example, have done quite a bit of retrofitting—or…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, indeed. I should say, obviously, my own constituency has an extremely large student population in it with two big universities, and we’ve had quite extensive conversations with the university local authorities as well, as with the universities…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
We've seen some build-to-rent. It's not huge in Wales, to be honest. It's a lot less huge than it has become in England. We have seen some build-to-rent in Cardiff. Cardiff attracts young professional people who want to be mobile and so on. Build-to-rents…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, and obviously I'm now the local government Minister as well, which I wasn’t before, and so it’s very high on my agenda to make sure that they all sign up. So ,I will be exploring with the ones that haven’t what exactly it is that’s stopping them. And…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes, I think so. We had to get used to it ourselves. Actually, we've concentrated a lot on making sure that all the local authorities come into the scheme, because they didn't all. So, we've been working with the local authorities to make sure that they're…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
The local housing allowance is the main barrier—the housing maintenance allowance, sorry. It's about to go up for the first time. I think it's just gone up, hasn't it, at the beginning of this financial year? That's the first time in several years. Even at…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Yes. We don't have a particular target for the amount of people in the sector, but we obviously—. The PRS is only one part of the housing agenda that we have. The other major plank of our housing agenda is to build 20,000 low carbon social homes for rent—not…
24 April 2024 , Local Government and Housing Committee
Private rented sector: Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning
Thank you very much, Chair. It's really nice to be here this morning. So, our overarching view of the private sector is that we want a viable private sector that works in harmony with all of the other sectors in the housing market. We don't have a particular…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
Thank you.
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
Well, I'm very happy to write to the committee and tell them how my meeting with the commissioners went, but I'm afraid I don't know whether the commissioners themselves have a timeline to report back to you yet, because I don't know what they're going to say…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
I'm sorry, you're trying to tempt me into saying a time and I'm not going to, Sioned, though it's a brave attempt, I must say. I don't know and, until I speak to the commissioners, I have no real view. Once I have spoken to the commissioners, I might have a…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
That would be very kind, Chair. If the clerk could just remind us of what we've promised you, that's always very helpful. And, it may well be, Chair, that there isn't time for me to come back to the committee before you report, but, obviously, I will be…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
Yes.
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
It's one of the things we can have a look at, isn't it, but I will say—forgive me, my local authority colleagues, for saying this—I think if I could snap my fingers and have a different configuration of local authorities in Wales, I probably would, and many…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
My understanding is—and this was certainly the case when I was last the Minister as well—we've had a whole series of discussions with the Welsh ambulance service about how the fire service can better support them, or, actually, they can better support each…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
My own particular view, and I've expressed this already to everybody who's advised me, is they absolutely need to have outside people in their decision-making capacity. From an operational decision-making capacity, I want people who have been trained to fight…
22 April 2024 , Equality and Social Justice Committee
Governance of Fire and Rescue Services: evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing, Local Government and Planning, and the Chief Fire Adviser
We obviously do need to have better systems to record that, but it's not just about recording it, is it? It's about attracting it. Why don't more women join the fire and rescue service? Is there something we could do to make that happen? Why is it so white a…
