David Melding: I feel I ought to start in a more generous spirit than I did last week, because we often clash on housing matters. So, let me just welcome some of the tone of this statement and such phrases as: 'I want to work with them to build at scale and pace'—that's the various people building houses; 'We believe that home ownership is not just for people on higher incomes'—well, that's why I...
David Melding: First Minister, I certainly agree that the Help to Buy scheme has been successful, as it has been in England, and the other demand-side measures that you mentioned—most of them are also in England—have also been helpful, but they're not as powerful as supply-side measures. Can I tell you, now, the latest figures? Since March 2018, just gone, the average house price in Wales is now over...
David Melding: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'm obviously in your good books this afternoon, and long may it continue. [Laughter.] First Minister, Cynon Valley is the third least economically active constituency in Wales, and we know the association between economic activity and prosperity. The main reason that people remain economically inactive, when they could, actually, for health reasons, be fit enough for...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, can I say—[Inaudible.]—I do not believe that there needs to be a tension between productive agriculture and care for the environment. So, we can certainly combine these very important public goods and aspirations. There clearly are some areas where we could have a broader range of produce, and horticulture I think is a very interesting one. There are some areas where we...
David Melding: Can I say I welcome this report and the Welsh Government's commitment to a wider plastics strategy? We've been calling for this for some time. I think a UK approach to many of the policy levers to manage plastic waste and increase recycling is definitely the best way forward, although there are initiatives we can take as well, as was indicated in what the Minister said about the renewed...
David Melding: Okay, well that's 100 per cent more than I thought we had.
David Melding: I'd be pleased to join you.
David Melding: Llywydd, it is in the public interest that this Bill receives support today. Given the decision of the ONS on the classification of RSLs, we must act. We've always accepted the principle of this Bill on this side of the Assembly, however we have sought to scrutinise it as a piece of significant, if necessary, deregulation. Consequently, it requires rigorous risk management. Our amendments at...
David Melding: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, it's always a pleasure to follow Mike Hedges, and how brave he was to approach this issue from a philosophical point of view. He seemed to be arguing that land tax was both essential and imaginary at one stage, but perhaps I didn't really follow his logic terribly well. The rest of his peroration was on the purpose and wonder of tax, and I've read the...
David Melding: I think that perhaps one thing we should look at is reducing the tax burden on commercial investment by rewarding environmentally sensitive building techniques and practices and how they're going to use the building and other facilities they may have there that will be environmentally sustainable. Perhaps you could offer a few incentives there to mitigate the unfortunate decision you've...
David Melding: Thank you, Llywydd.
David Melding: History, geography and the rapid expansion of extractive industries, especially coal, have combined to produce a unique built environment in Wales, and I'm pleased to introduce this debate this evening. I'm also pleased to allow Hefin David and Suzy Davies to have a minute of my time. The terraced housing of the industrial period is present in other parts of the UK, but not in the...
David Melding: Terraced housing combined to make a unique succession of urban communities, villages almost, that contrasted sharply to nucleated urban development elsewhere. About 40 per cent of homes in Wales are terraces, and this will still amount to 28 per cent of our housing stock by 2050. This inheritance should be enthusiastically celebrated, rather than seen as an incubus or hangover from the...
David Melding: First Minister, over the three winter months, 1,860 people who were classified as amber, and you will know this includes people suffering from a stroke or a heart attack, were made to wait over six hours for their ambulance. Now, this is, surely, unacceptable and we need to ensure that, next winter, some of these very basic standards are met.
David Melding: I'm pleased to support the motion before the Assembly this afternoon. As the CLAC report notes, central to the recommendation to approve the LCM is the inter-governmental agreement, and I want to return to that later. This, together with the amendments to the original clause 11. As the CLAC report states: 'The amendments tabled by UK Ministers to clause 11 of the Bill indicate an important...
David Melding: If this is really a roll-back of devolution, as Plaid and the SNP claim, the public seem very sanguine. I will give way.
David Melding: Well, you see, that's the whole point, isn't it? You argue, 'Yes, we need them', but you won't agree any process or give reasonable consent to them being constructed. You want a national veto. You want to preserve what you see as your absolute sovereignty.
David Melding: There wouldn't have been an EU in the first place if that particular interpretation of sovereignty had not been reassessed. As Monnet said, we need to go through the barrier of narrow national sovereignty, and we need to create, in the UK, something analogous to the shared governance in the EU. Your approach is antithetical to that and that's the whole problem here this afternoon.
David Melding: Okay, I'll take one more.
David Melding: Can I say, Rhun, I'm genuinely pleased that you've made that point because I want to now move to my conclusion, which I do think is an area, we may find, that more unites us? As I said at the start, the inter-governmental agreement is really important. It's only the start, however, of our concept of shared governance and this does require an overhaul and it will be the ultimate test of...
