Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I very much want to thank Members who’ve contributed to the debate today, and indeed to reiterate my thanks to the Chairs for their scrutiny of the LCMs over the time. I know that John Griffiths was not able to do this last one, but I’m very grateful for the previous work that the committee has done. I would just like to say that I completely agree about the time limits...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. I do move the motion. This is a UK Bill intended to reform the regulation of social housing providers in England. I have called another debate today, because on 9 March, I laid a final supplementary LCM following additional amendments proposed by the UK Government shortly before our last debate. Today's debate and vote is in relation to giving legislative consent for the...
Julie James: Apologies. Can you not hear me?
Julie James: Apologies, Llywydd. Give me one second. I seem to be having an ICT problem. Give me one second. Apologies.
Julie James: There we go. Sorry. Apologies, Llywydd.
Julie James: Well, you said—
Julie James: Actually, you said yesterday—. You can check the Record, if you like. Maybe you didn't mean it, but what you said yesterday was really not very acceptable. Check it yourself. Let us not forget that Grenfell itself was a social sector property. I think it's actually quite important to remember that. Yesterday, I updated the Senedd on progress that has been made in addressing fire safety...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you, Rhys, for the opportunity to discuss again the important issue of building safety in Wales. Just yesterday I made a statement on a series of actions we are taking as part of the Welsh building safety programme, together with our co-operation partners, Plaid Cymru. There were six strands to that update, including our work in making developers responsible...
Julie James: Thank you very much for that. That last question is just an impossibility to answer at this point in time. What we need is a properly set out pipeline, if you like, of work, so that we have all of the skilled people that we can get our hands on in Wales doing the work at the right level, to the right spec, with the right supply chain. I absolutely cannot say how long that will take. As I...
Julie James: Thank you very much, Jane Dodds, for that set of questions. The last one first. We can't interfere in existing court proceedings; we just can't. So, if there's an existing court proceeding, that will have to see its route through the courts. I have absolutely no detail in front of me about which court proceedings are which, or what stage they're at, or any of the legal arguments you'd need to...
Julie James: Thank you, Mike. I will write back to you on the very specific points you made. It's worth doing that because I think it's more of a detailed answer than here. But just to be really clear, buildings that don't have anybody responsible left for them standing—so, the developer and everybody else has gone out of business; Carillion is a very good example of that—will, as long as they've put...
Julie James: Thanks very much for that series of questions. In terms of other buildings, do you mean buildings under 11m? Is that what you meant? Yes. We aren't doing anything about that at the moment, because we need to make sure that those in the higher risk buildings, who are the ones who would have most difficulty in escaping, for example, are remediated first. Once we've done that, we will turn our...
Julie James: Thank you, Janet. The 'intent to sign' part is merely that the companies in question have to get the permission of holding company boards. We have letters saying they intend to sign. It is actually worth the paper it's written on, and I do expect them to sign formally very shortly. But they have to go through a board process in order to do that. So, that just is what it is. But they are...
Julie James: Also, here in Wales, our fund is not limited to buildings with unsafe cladding. The Grenfell fire tragedy highlighted the wider issue of fire safety more generally in high-rise buildings. We invited expressions of interest from all responsible persons for all residential buildings of 11m or over in height. However, on the issue of cladding, all high-rise buildings with known aluminium...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I am pleased to have this opportunity to share a significant progress update on the series of actions we are taking as part of the Welsh building safety programme. There are six strands to my update today, ranging from our work in making developers responsible for putting right the issues with buildings they have constructed, to taking forward work to remediate orphan...
Julie James: Yes, thank you very much, Huw. So, it was a pleasure to come to the cross-party group, and we absolutely will continue to engage with everyone. What we need is a Bill that's capable of delivering improved benefits over time. So, I do think it's ambitious enough for where we are now. It might not be ambitious enough for where we want to be in five years, and that's the point about...
Julie James: Diolch, Jane. Just to clarify, then, as I keep saying, we're amending existing legislation in this Bill as well as introducing new things, and the important part that we're amending is that, currently, local authorities are required to review air quality in the areas from time to time. What this is doing is putting a statutory duty on them to do that in a cycle, so that they have to do an...
Julie James: Yes, thank you, Jenny. So, as I said, we have a national strategy, but we have a locally delivered and local plan, and in some cases, actually, a regional plan, where obviously Cardiff and its hinterland will need to work together, as will other cities across Wales. It's a bit more of a complicated piece. This isn't a stand-alone Act; I can't emphasise that enough. So, the national air...
Julie James: Thank you very much, Delyth, for that series of comments and questions. Obviously, we're in the same broad place here. I'm very glad to be bringing this forward. It will make a substantial difference to the people of Wales. It will also help our local authorities target their efforts, and that's very important too, and that goes directly to the heart of the social justice point you make,...
Julie James: Thank you, Janet. I think that I found three questions in that six and a half minutes, but perhaps you will let me know later if I'm wrong. The first question was nonsensical. I am very delighted to introduce the Bill now. The idea that we then go over the fact that we are introducing it now—I just really wasn't following you there. I think that you were accepting that we are introducing...
