, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
As you know, we've got a rescue scheme in place there as well. So, people who are trapped in those buildings and need to move on for various reasons and financial hardship can apply to our scheme. We have a buy-out scheme, effectively. I would encourage…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Certainly, Joel. So, as of 23 September, we completed the intrusive work on 38 of the 163 buildings, and the remaining 125 buildings that require further intrusive survey work are due to be completed this autumn. We have had some delays on some buildings due…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
So, Mabon, we're already giving local authorities very considerably more than the base budget for housing associations. Again, I'll defer to Emma, but around £1.8 million a month is going into local government on top of the usual budgets because we have this…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Thank you, Emma. I knew I’d garbled it.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Shall we just bring Amelia in, just for one moment, to tell us exactly what that formula is, because I'm sure I garbled that?
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Absolutely, Mabon. That’s what I was saying about having to have a careful calibration of the decision about rents in the social rented sector. We start to make those decisions around December, so I’m just currently waiting on a set of advice from my…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Three per cent.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Well, we'll need to announce what we're going to do very shortly, won't we, Mabon? So, we've already put more money into the system. We're making sure that we get as much information out to our registered landlords as possible, through Rent Smart Wales and so…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
So, Mabon, we have an agreement already with our social sector, as I'm sure you know, that we have no eviction into homelessness, and that's been a feature of Welsh housing policy for quite considerable time now. I was very interested by the announcement in…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Yes, certainly. The pilot is now progressing at pace. We have two dedicated members of staff in place in the pilot area, working with the community and stakeholders. They are currently focused on baselining data and local housing need alongside Gwynedd…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
I'm certainly happy to do that, Carolyn. Just on the pets, you can't have a no-pet clause; you have to have a reasonable arrangement. So, if a tenant asks for a pet, to be allowed a pet as part of their rental agreement, the landlord has to treat that…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
You're absolutely right, Carolyn. Am I muted? No, I'm all right. Sorry, I had a mute sign come up on my screen, then, for a moment. We've got a real problem, haven't we, because the local housing allowance was frozen. For the life of me I cannot understand…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Sure, Carolyn, I certainly can. Just to go back to the delays in the planning system, that's very much what we've been looking to work with, and we've also been working with the water companies, Dŵr Cymru in particular, about slow responses to requests for…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Certainly, Carolyn. The fundamental here is that we all agree that a good-quality, secure home is fundamental to social, physical and mental well-being, and the escalating cost of living emphasises that the case for investing in social housing is as strong as…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Yes, certainly. We're very fortunate in that Crisis are continuing to support our panel. The expert review panel is chaired by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick. They're developing the proposals and advice for the Welsh Government, and they're completely in line…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Because the ongoing 'no-one left out' approach isn't supported by the current legislation regime, and so what we're doing is basically adding everyone to the categories that get support as a temporary stop gap. So, it won't have any effect, John, because it's…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Yes, certainly. So, as the committee will remember very well, I'm sure, our 'no-one left out' approach took place almost overnight when the pandemic hit, as opposed to the years of transition that we had originally thought we would have when our homelessness…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
So, we do meet very regularly with the housing cabinet members from across local government. We also meet regularly with registered social landlord providers and Community Housing Cymru. We also meet very regularly with the leaders of the local authorities…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
The very short answer to that is that we anticipate up to around 650 additional properties in this financial year as a result of the additional funding, on top of the build we were expecting. What we're basically trying to do is significantly increase the…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
—so even worse than it was earlier this year. Those figures were commonplace in the pandemic, but they're quite a lot higher than they were before.
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Yes, it's higher than it was before the pandemic. It's about the same as it was during the pandemic, and it hasn't—. Actually, I'm just being told by one of my officials that it's up to 1,300 a month at the moment—
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
It is indeed, yes, and it's not COVID—I'm very negative—but other viruses are available, it transpires. But, anyway. So, yes, we have a very significant homelessness pressure across Wales. New presentations are really continuing at a very worryingly high…
, Local Government and Housing Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session - Minister for Climate Change
Bore da, Cadeirydd; good morning, everyone. I apologise to start off with, John, I seem to be full of cold, so I'm coughing rather a lot. So, apologies in advance for that.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Bill
Diolch, Cadeirydd.
, Finance Committee
Financial implications of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Bill
Exactly, but as Mike just pointed out, actually, we have a higher inflationary pressure on oil, and oil-based products, so we might actually be having a slight decrease in the differential. We don't have the empirical evidence to show that; that's just a best…
