Lee Waters: I think I understand the full force of his argument, Llywydd, so I'd rather—. Well, let him be brief and let me hear the blast of his argument one more time. [Laughter.]
Lee Waters: Well, with respect to Alun Davies, it's not just a case of having Senedd time, is it? It's about having the capacity within the Government to take a whole Bill through, and those are different things. So, I respectfully disagree with him about the pragmatic judgments that we have faced. And I just would stress to Members that this is primary legislation. The substance of the enactment will be...
Lee Waters: We are working with local authorities to review and strengthen the approach to assessing local housing need through local housing market assessments. A £50.41 million social housing grant has been allocated for north Wales in 2021-22 to provide more homes for rent in the social sector.
Lee Waters: To kick-start decarbonisation of Wales’s 1.4 million homes, I am investing £150 million in the optimised retrofit programme over the next three years to learn how to decarbonise social homes efficiently and effectively. What we learn from social housing will amplify and accelerate efforts to reduce carbon emissions for all homes.
Lee Waters: Bringing our metro programmes to life is ambitious and complex. Significant construction work is already under way on the south Wales metro through the £738 million core Valleys lines transformation, and the Swansea bay & west Wales metro is spearheading pilots on hydrogen powered busses and integrated ticketing.
Lee Waters: Following the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s agreement to the quashing of the previous decision, the council must prepare a new report on the application. I will consider whether to call in the application when we receive the new report from the council.
Lee Waters: Thank you. I'd refer the Member to the oral statement made yesterday, and, of course, we're debating this this afternoon. As we made clear, inspections of higher rated tips have recently completed and we committed £44.4 million for maintenance works over the next three years.
Lee Waters: Thank you, yes, and I completely agree that there is a role here for the UK Government. This is a legacy of Britain's industrial past. The tips were accumulated before power was devolved to Wales and the UK Government must play its role in meeting that bill. And I think there is consensus in this Chamber, certainly on non-Conservative benches, that that's the case. As the Member rightly says,...
Lee Waters: Well, the funding that was made available after the floods amounted to some £9 million and around half of that has gone to coal tip safety in Tylorstown. We've spent some £20 million on that. We're facing a bill of in excess of £500 million. We've committed £44.4 million over the next three years. The UK Government has refused to give any further money, and both the Secretary of State for...
Lee Waters: Thank you. We have introduced new build standards for social homes, which banish the use of fossil fuels, with ambitions for private developers to adopt these requirements by 2025. We also continue to invest in the optimised retrofit programme, exploring the most effective and efficient ways of decarbonising existing social housing stock.
Lee Waters: Well, I'd like to echo what Mike Hedges said about Swansea Council. I think it's an excellent example of a partnership between a Labour-run local authority and a Welsh Labour Government. They themselves have invested some £60 million this financial year in warmer, more energy efficient homes, creating some 25 new low-carbon homes, as well as a programme of energy efficiency for existing...
Lee Waters: Well, I would like to welcome Altaf Hussain to the Labour benches—[Laughter.] There is much joy in heaven for every sinner that repents.
Lee Waters: I couldn't agree more, Llywydd. There are, indeed, too many Tories and we shall make sure there are fewer at the next election—[Laughter.] But, seriously, to answer the point of the Member's question, which I thank him for, how we tackle the private sector homes is clearly a challenge for us all. I did note in the Chancellor's budget he did announce a reduction in VAT for some solar...
Lee Waters: Well, Llywydd, there are two separate points to address there, and I'll try and address them both. On the first, I was present yesterday afternoon during business questions, and I heard the quite harrowing accounts by the Member of the experience she and fellow passengers had had, and I was very sorry to hear it. I met with the chair and the chief executive of Transport for Wales straight...
Lee Waters: The Member is rehearsing arguments we had not a matter of weeks ago in the Senedd Chamber, and I don't intend to go through them all again, other than to say we are satisfied, as we set out in that debate, that we have a mechanism to do that, we have a long-term plan, and there are already policies and actions in place that will do that. As she mentioned, the deep dive was conducted to look...
Lee Waters: Well, my favourite right honourable is the Rt Hon Elin Jones, and I'd much prefer that she were our focus, rather than Boris Johnson. I really feel the UK Government are not learning the mistakes of the past. You've just criticised the energy system for being dependent on Russian oil and gas and we're now racing into the arms of Chinese investors to be committed to large nuclear builds....
Lee Waters: The purpose of these deep dives—and I must say I'm rather going off the title as it's beginning to sound a little pretentious; as I've said, if we keep having deep dives like these, we'll end up with the bends—is a rapid review of barriers, and they start as an open-ended process. In the ones that I've carried out on woodland creation and renewable energy, and I'm now doing something...
Lee Waters: Well, after more than 10 years of austerity, there isn't a single public body in Wales that has the capacity that they would wish to have, and I think that is just a fact that we have to deal with. NRW is no different from Conwy council or from any other public body, and we, all of us, have to live within our means. There are discussions going on with NRW about how we prioritise. For example,...
Lee Waters: Diolch. Gwynedd Council are designing a scheme to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion at Hirael bay. Natural Resources Wales are also reviewing the modelling data of the Afon Adda. The review will confirm the current standard of protection and consider the potential future risk associated with climate change.
Lee Waters: The Member is right; the Hirael is challenged with being at risk from a combination of tidal, pluvial and fluvial sources—from the sea, the river and the sky. This will get worse as climate change intensifies—we know this is the case—and Hirael is particularly vulnerable. So, we are investing, as she mentions, £213 million in flood schemes, and this includes a scheme in Hirael bay. It...
