1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scrutiny of the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning on the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026
Take me, for example—and I'm going to move on to more complicated ones afterwards—I'm known as Mike Hedges, Michael Hedges and Michael John Hedges in different places. But it's also more complicated in some families, where first names and surnames run down…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Scrutiny of the Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning on the Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026
I want to ask you about data. I'll be briefer than I really want to be. Are there any legislative barriers that prevent access to national data like national insurance numbers? Actually finding people can be incredibly difficult. The ability to have data out…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I can only speak on Morriston, where I live, in great detail, and Swansea in much less detail, but there are chapels all over the place. The one thing that south Wales has got, and I'm sure north Wales as well, is lots of chapels. Their congregations have…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I was going to raise that you must all have pubs and you must all have chapels that used to be very popular but have now gone into disuse and are in various stages of dereliction. I think everyone else in the room recognises those. Have you any experience of…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
Well, there are actually cases of this.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
My question is that we were told earlier there is no difficulty in enforcing against somebody living in prison: do you find that there's no problem enforcing against somebody living in prison? Are there any problems enforcing against somebody who lives abroad…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
Okay, thank you.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
I did mention the two previous things of the carrot of, 'You can have grant funding for renovation', and the stick of, 'You've got to pay additional council tax, if you don't bring it back into use.' Have those worked at all? Somebody else can answer, if you…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 2
We had the carrot of grant money, didn't we, for people who wanted to do work on a house to bring it back into use. We had the stick of having higher rates of council tax able to be charged. And then we had the big stick of compulsory purchase orders. Have…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Danbert House, which is a very big building in Morriston and which has been derelict for about 20 years, the council have only taken it on every time they've had to do safety work and, having done the safety work, they can then sell it in order to recoup the…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Quite simply, enforcement is wonderful. How do you enforce against somebody in prison? How do you enforce against somebody who's moved abroad, and how do you enforce when, having started the enforcement action, they then transfer the property to someone else?…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Well, a court will decide that.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
As a fellow Member for the area will know, that is not a recent one; that goes back well over a decade.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Sometimes people make houses uninhabitable. There is a house in Penllergaer that is a four-bedroomed detached house, which is very nice and it's on the main road, and the doors have been bricked up, the windows have been bricked up. It's uninhabitable…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
If you can give us the numbers—. Can I ask for them in writing after this meeting? But if you could let us know the reasons you've got in percentages, or approximate percentages, for why these properties are empty.
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
Thank you, that's very useful. Can you give us the percentages for each reason for empty properties? You said that that was a very small number. Can you tell us what the bigger numbers are?
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
I was going to say, finally from me, that one of the problems is that some of them are empty because of battles over probate, battles over wills, the fact that, even when probate is granted, people want to go to court to say that the will is not fair and that…
1 October 2026 , Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Follow-up inquiry into Empty Properties: Evidence session 1
I'll ask it in two parts. I think the first one is: how can you have a strategic approach when you don't know the reasons for empty properties? I won't go into detail, but there are about four or five major reasons why properties are empty. Until you know…
30 September 2026 , Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Minister for Social Justice
Flying Start is a brilliant initiative, despite its flaws. Too many children start nursery with a developmental age of two, while some of the more advanced start with a developmental age approaching four. Some start not toilet trained and with very limited…
30 September 2026 , Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Minister for Social Justice
Thank you for that response.
30 September 2026 , Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Minister for Social Justice
2. How will the Welsh Government ensure that Flying Start and the new 20-hour childcare offer will together be flexible enough to support families' working lives? OQ64565
28 September 2026 , Culture, Communications, Cymraeg and Sport Committee
Annual scrutiny session with Sport Wales
Women need different toilet facilities to men.
28 September 2026 , Culture, Communications, Cymraeg and Sport Committee
Annual scrutiny session with Sport Wales
Please will you start advocating?
28 September 2026 , Culture, Communications, Cymraeg and Sport Committee
Annual scrutiny session with Sport Wales
I have two very brief points. I think that you probably both remember when 'Walk, wheel or cycle a mile a day' was the mantra for schools. That's disappeared. Some schools are still doing it, but it's certainly not something that either you, the Welsh…
28 September 2026 , Culture, Communications, Cymraeg and Sport Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Thank you. I'm happy.
